Devil's Due
by StangeInterests32
Summary: When Jane accidentally broke open the barrier, Maleficent was let loose back into Auradon. With her defeat, the kingdom believed it was safe once again. But what if Maleficent wasn't the only villain to get out? What if Jane released a threat was just as dangerous, and just as infamous, that was looking to exact revenge on those who imprisoned him?
1. Chapter 1

Part 1 – Perched Above My Armoire Door

"I can't believe I did it," Jane said out loud to herself as she sat on her bed in her dorm room, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she'd actually performed magic. She looked over at the bed on the other side of the room - Audrey's bed - and sank just a little bit. "I did magic, and it blew up in my face," she lamented, "or, Audrey's head."

Auradon Prep's reigning pink princess was still at the festival, no doubt yelling for Mal to fix her hair. I could've fixed her hair, Jane thought as she let herself fall back onto her bed, staring up at the bed's blue ivory canopy. I _probably_ could've fixed her hair, she then thought.

"Oh, who am I kidding? The only way I could've fixed that hair was to pay for a hairdresser. Better yet, just paid Mal to fix it. I'm hopeless," she said out loud. "I can't do a simple hair spell, and I can't even hold Mom's wand," she moaned as she remembered the disastrous results that happened when she grabbed her mother's wand out of her hand.

She still remembered the way the wand virtually spat out a surge of magic the second she grabbed it. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. She had nothing to really compare it to, but she figured that the only phrase that came close to accurately describing what shot out was pure, unadulterated raw power. Especially since the blast reached all the way to the Isle of the Lost and punched a hole in the barrier. Jane next remembered the way the wand tried to force its way out of her hands when she tried to cast a spell. It took all of her strength just to keep her grip on it and even then she felt like she was moments from being dragged around the hall.

It certainly didn't help that the first person to yank the wand from her was Mal, and she did without any reactions. Just my luck, she thought, the villain kid _is_ able to hold my mother's want instead of me. It was at that point that she truly believed what all the others kids in school had been saying about her for years. The reason that her mother hadn't taught her magic was because she wasn't capable of it and that despite the fact that she was half-fairy, she didn't have a magical bone in her body. And for the past week, she'd actually believed that.

Then the whole thing with Audrey's hair happened and now she was starting to look at herself differently. Part of her was confused. Part of her was scared. Part of her was excited.

Should I tell Mom, she thought. The fear in her increased with that thought. Knowing my luck, Mom will just grab her wand and permanently strip me of any magical abilities. Not being able to come up with any answers that seemed to benefit her, Jane just fell backwards onto her bed again, grabbed her pillow and held it over her face. "What do I do?" she said, her voice muffled by her pillow.

 _Caw!_

Jane bolted upright in her bed, her head turning in every direction to check for whatever made that sound.

 _Caw!_

Without the pillow, Jane was able to pinpoint the source of the sound this time. She turned and looked up at the top of the armoire on the other side of the room. She heard herself gasp as saw that perched on top of it was a big, black bird.

Jane got off the bed and slowly made her way toward her dresser. As she moved, the raven squawked and flapped its wings. Jane kept her eyes on the winged intruder and moved her hand over the dresser until she found her hair brush.

"Nice bird. _Pretty_ bird," she said, trying her best to sound calm.

As quickly as she could, Jane raised her hand and threw the hair brush at the raven. The brush completely missed. The bird squawked and flew off the armoire. Jane screamed and covered her head as she ran across the room and dove onto Audrey's bed. When she looked back up, she saw that the raven had taken a position on her bed.

Great, just what I need, bird poop all over my sheets, she thought.

"Shoo!" she shouted at the bird. It just looked back at her, its glossy eyes shining. "Go away!"

 _Caw!_

Suddenly a knock on the door startled Jane, causing her to squeal loudly.

"Jane is everything okay?" came a voice from outside the room. The raven squawked once more and then leapt off the bed. It spread its wings and quickly took its leave by flying out the open window near Jane's bed. "Jane?" came the voice again, this time louder to be heard over her knocking.

"I'm," Jane started, and then quickly cleared her throat as she realized that her voice was much higher than normal. "Uh, yeah, I'm okay," she said, her voice sounding more normal even though she could still feel her heart pounding like a jackhammer.

Part 2 – Enter the Pirate

It had been a few days since Jane had gone through the most stressful Saturday of her life. Audrey's hair was back to normal and she seemed to completely forget Jane's part in that debacle, mostly because she was preoccupied with the school's newest villain kid, Freddie. What surprised everybody was the fact that even Mal seemed to share the same concern over Freddie that Audrey did. Those two agreeing on something never really happened, so it made everyone nervous.

With Audrey's preoccupation, Jane was able to try and think about what to do about her magical problem. On the one hand, she loved that she knew she was capable of magic. On the other, it still made her wonder what else she was capable of, and if she should try and test her limits. She racked her brain on what to decide as she sat alone at lunch. Her sandwich and fruit sat uneaten on the ground next to her as she sat on the soft grass, her back resting against a tree.

She was looking at the branches of the tree, watching as an apple hung over her head. She focused all her attention on it, and surprised herself when she realized she was actually trying to, for lack of a better term, will it to fall to her. Come on, she thought as the apple remained unmoved, I once saw Mom do something like this when I was little, and _without_ the wand. She concentrated harder, but the apple remained unmoved.

"Trying to move it or blow it up?" a female voice asked, startling Jane and breaking her concentration.

Looking up, Jane saw a tall, willowy looking girl with long blonde hair. She was dressed in tight form fitting black pants and matching knee-length boots folded at the top, a loose fitting white blouse with a black leather belt and red captain's jacket that looked like it came straight off a ship.

"Um...huh?" Jane asked, momentarily confused.

"The apple," the girl clarified. "Are you trying to move it, or blow it up?" she repeated more slowly, though not in a condescending manner.

"Oh, um, move it, from up there to my hand down here," Jane answered. "Problem is, I'm still kind of new at the whole magic thing."

"New?"

"I cast my first spell like, four days ago."

The blonde sat down across from Jane. She crossed her legs Indian-style and smoothed out her coat. "Why don't you get your Mom or Dad to help? I'm sure they would, seeing as they're the ones who gave you your magic," she said. Jane was trying to place her accent. She definitely heard the dominant British ancestry, but there was something else about it, like it had been muddied up.

"I can't. My dad's not really…he's not around, died when I was little," Jane said sadly.

"Sorry there, love."

"It's okay, I didn't get my magic from him anyway," Jane explained.

"What about your Mom?"

"Won't teach me. I've begged for years, but she says that now that she's hung up her wand, the only 'magic' she'll teach me is from books, and she doesn't mean the spell ones."

"Wand?"

"Yeah," Jane told her slowly, disbelief that this girl didn't know who she was. It wasn't that Jane considered herself all that popular, but everyone knew who the Fairy Godmother was. "Not from around here?"

"Visiting."

"Oh, well, my mother is the Fairy Godmother," Jane clarified.

Jane saw the girl's eyes widen and her lips curl into a smile. "You're Jane," she said in surprise.

"Do we know each other?" Jane asked suspiciously.

"No, but I watched the coronation on the telly, I -"

"Oh God," Jane said as she buried her face in her hands. After a taking a deep breath she looked up. "You watched me try to steal my Mom's wand, didn't you?"

"You certainly didn't have the best laid plan, but it was nice effort," the stranger told her. "But I just have to know, what the hell happened once you grabbed it?"

"The wand basically, for lack of a better term, fought back. Mom says it was the wand's way of telling me I was unworthy to hold it." Jane said in lamentation. When she saw the questioning look the strange girl was giving her, she continued. "Mom says the wand isn't a hereditary right, its…more merit based. Basically, the wand choses its wielders, which sucks for me, because deep down, I was kind of hoping to go from Fairy God- _daughter_ to Fairy God- _mother_."

"My Dad says that sometimes we have be shown what we _can't_ be, so we can figure out what we can," the stranger said. "Of course I think he just said that to compensate for not being able to play the piano as well as he used to."

Jane laughed at the off handed joke, but took the advice. She was about to say thank you for lessening her stress when the girl spoke again. "Have you tried to start with something smaller? Like say…I have no clue what to start with," she said laughing.

Jane smiled at the effort to help her out and nodded her head. Jane looked around and when she was certain that no one was watching, she held her hand out toward the small bowl that held her fruit. She focused on it and moved her hand forward, smiling proudly as the bowl slid slowly against the grass.

"Brilliant," said the blonde.

"Thanks," Jane beamed. "That's why I was hoping to move up to moving the apple from the tree, but it's just not working."

"How are trying it?" Jane looked at her new acquaintance questioningly. "How are you trying to move the apple? To your hand? Away from the tree? Does it even matter how you move it?"

Jane perked up; her face lighting up as if she'd just realized what she was doing wrong. She once more looked at the apple and to the amazement of both girls, the apple shook and finally it fell, landing just a few inches in front of Jane.

"Yes," she squealed. "I just needed to separate it from the tree, gravity would do the rest."

"Nice," said the stranger as she picked up the apple. "Do you mind, haven't eaten all day."

"Go ahead. If you want, you can have half my sandwich to go with it."

"Thanks, love," the girl said as she reached over and grabbed the offered lunch.

"I'm Jane by the way," Jane said holding out her hand after she realized that neither of them had actually introduced themselves.

"Harriet," the new girl said through a mouthful of roast beef and Swiss. She shook Jane's hand and swallowed. "Harriet H-"

 _Caw!_

"Where the bloody hell did that come from?" Harriet asked as both girls looked up, and saw a large raven perched on the same branch that previously held the apple.

"I think he's following me," Jane told her as she reached up and took a bite of her half of the remaining sandwich.

"That's not creepy at all," Harriet said sarcastically.

"At first it was, but now, not so much. He's actually been bringing me things." Harriet looked at Jane doubtfully. "He does," she reiterated, "A couple of day ago he brought me rosebud. The day after that, he brought me a piece of quartz rock, and yesterday he brought me a chrysalis."

"And none of those things seem weird to you?" Harriet asked as she took a bite of the apple.

"Kind of, mostly because the things seem random, but I'm thinking that that they're part of something."

"Like what?"

Jane shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know. I've got a few people I can ask, the hard part is figuring out who won't tell my mother," Jane explained as she grabbed a piece of fruit from the bowl and held it in her open hand. "Want some?" she offered to the bird. The raven squawked and flew down to the ground. He walked over to Jane and grabbed at the offered morsel, snatching it in its beak and dropping it to the ground. The girls watched as he began pecking at it, using his beak to break it apart.

"Surely you can narrow down the list of little helpers?" Harriet asked her as she took another chunk out of the apple.

Jane just looked at her and smiled, albeit worrisome.

Part 3 – The Book of Knowledge

It was Saturday afternoon and Jane was psyching herself up for her day. She adjusted the pink ribbon holding her hair in a ponytail for what seemed liked the hundredth time. It's not like it matters if my ribbon's straight, she thought to herself, Freddie's not gonna care. And yet despite knowing that Freddie was going to be indifferent, she still obsessed. It wasn't from some need to look her best for Freddie in particular; it was just an old habit. Whenever Jane felt nervous, she tended to fixate on something she had a modicum of control over, whether that control was real or imaginary didn't matter.

Before Mal and the other VKs arrived, she tended to obsess over her looks, and apparently, old habits die hard. Only now, instead looking in the mirror and thinking that her nose was too big or that her teeth weren't straight enough or that her skin was too pale, it was her hair. After the whole coronation incident, she had gone to her mother, practically in tears over the fact that gum had accidentally gotten in her usual bob cut. She told her that after seeing how bad the situation was, the only remedy that didn't involve magic was cutting her hair to get the gum out.

Unfortunately, so much of the sticky stuff had gotten in that she was left with enough hair for a pixie cut - a cut even Jane refused to try and make work. After enough pleading, Fairy Godmother relented and used magic to fix Jane's hair, although she only added length. She made sure that her daughter knew that magical styling was off limits. Jane smiled as she thought back to the glee on Evie's face when she asked her to help out, leaving the younger fairy with her now red streaked brown locks.

She tightened the ribbon one last time and decided to stop stalling and just get through with this. She mustered her resolve, walked over to her dresser, and grabbed the written list of current items that the bird had brought her. She folded it and placed it in her purse and walked out of her room, trying her best to walk normal despite the nerves.

She knocked on Freddie's door and counted off the seconds in her head while she waited for her to answer. With each passing second Jane almost gave in to her nerves and ran, but before she could make the final decision, the door opened.

"Yes?" she heard Freddie say as she slid her head through the cracked opening.

"Um, hi Freddie, it's me, Jane. We met in my Mom's office when you were getting your classes."

"I remember. How can I help you?" Freddie said quickly, as if she was being inconvenienced by the headmistress's daughter.

"Well, I, um, I kind of need you to help me perform some magic."

Jane watched Freddie's mouth curl into a smile that would make the Cheshire cat jealous and bat her eyes at her. "As tempting as that sounds, I'm kind of busy. You could try Mal," she told her as she closed the door.

Well that went well, she thought as she stared at the door for a few seconds. She started to make her way down the hall, racking her brain with who she could ask when suddenly she heard the door reopen.

"Jane," she heard a familiar, muddied British accent call out.

"Harriet?" she called back as she turned around. Harriet nodded and motioned for her to return to the room. "Freddie is the friend you're here to visit?"

"Yeah, it was supposed to be a secret, too, Harry," Freddie said in a faux-sweet tone as Jane entered Freddie's room. Jane looked around and gathered that Freddie's roommate, Bernadette, the daughter of Esmeralda and Phoebus, was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh come off it, she's probably here because of what I told her, isn't that right, love?" Harriet told Freddie before addressing Jane. Jane nodded and Harriet returned her gaze, this time a little more steeled, toward Freddie. "And I've told you never to call me Harry, haven't I, _Frederique_."

Freddie looked back at Harriet with a similar steeled expression, her eyebrow raised defiantly. "Fine, what can I do for you?" she asked Jane sweetly as she shut the door and went to sit on her bed.

"I need a little help with some magic. A raven's been bringing me stuff and it looks like they might be ingredients, but I just don't know. I was hoping, you know, since your Dad was a, a, um…," Jane stuttered as she tried to find a gentle way of describing Freddie's father.

"A witch doctor? Or a villain?" Freddie asked flatly.

"I was going to say the first one," Jane told her skittishly. "I was hoping he taught you spells, you know, in case you ever made it off the isle."

Freddie looked at Jane, her face blank. She didn't know if she was being conned, mostly because Jane didn't look like the kind of person capable of conning anyone. She turned toward Harriet, and saw that the pirate daughter was smiling cheekily at her. "And you volunteered me for this?"

"Not you specifically, but I did tell her to ask someone with magical knowledge."

Freddie bit the inside of her cheek, her instincts telling her to tell Jane no, because getting involved with the Fairy Godmother's daughter had trouble spelled all over it. But then, her mind focusing on a particular word of Jane's request, she smiled and thought what the hell.

"What did the bird bring you?"

Jane reached into the pocket of her sweater and pulled out a list of what had been brought to her. "Rosebud, chrysalis, quartz rock, ginger root, ashes, animal fur," Freddie whispered the list to herself.

"The list's gotten bigger," Harriet commented.

Jane nodded.

"Animal bones?" Freddie asked with bewilderment. "How'd he get animal bones?"

"And what kind of animal?" Harriet asked.

"I'm hoping he just found an animal that was already dead and not one that he, you know…"

"Killed," both Harriet and Freddie asked in dread.

That was the same thought Jane tried not to think about. She knew that there were birds that could kill, but she'd never read anywhere of a raven doing so. They were more scavengers than predators.

"Loved to help you F.G.," Freddie said as she handed back the list, "but I can't." Jane took back the list slowly, a look of dejection on her face. Even Harriet was looking at her with a certain amount of disbelief. "What? It's not that I don't _want_ to help, I _can't_."

"And why not, Freddie?" Harriet asked pointedly.

"Well, Harriet," Freddie began sarcastically in a mock British accent, "I don't know what spell these things would be used for. I'd have to check a spell book." Both Harriet and Jane looked at her expectantly. Harriet even pointed to Freddie's closet. "I don't have one with me; I'd usually look this up in my Dad's, but his is back on the isle. Which means, you're plum out of luck," she finished at Jane.

"What if I could get you a spell book?" Jane asked.

"From where?"

Jane just smiled at the young witch doctor.

A few hours later Jane was knocking on Mal and Evie's door. She was even more nervous than when she was planning on talking to Freddie. That plan only held the possibility of being told no. This plan held the possibility of pissing off someone who proved she could use magic for payback, of alienating her from the first real friends she'd had, and worst off, getting her in trouble with her mother. She bit her lip as she waited for the door to open. She was just about to knock again when it finally opened.

"Hey Jane," Evie greeted as she opened up. "Coming by for a touch up?" she asked in reference to Jane's hair.

"No, just um, wondering if I could crash here for a little bit." Evie nodded and moved to let her in. "Hey, Mal," Jane said as she walked in and saw Mal on her bed, sketching in her book.

"Hi Jane," she said slowly, her concentration fixed on her sketch pad.

"Why can't you be in your room?" Evie asked. Jane immediately looked back, shock written on her face. "Not that we don't want you here, it's just unexpected."

"Oh um, Audrey has the girls from the cheerleading squad over to talk about the positions on the squad that need filling. They get kind of loud, and I was trying to take a nap," she explained, trying her best to sound convincing, and not like she was bursting at the seams from lying through her teeth.

"Feel free," Mal said as she finally looked up from her sketch book. "Me and E were just about to go over and meet the boys, hang out for a while."

"Yeah, why don't you come with us instead; Carlos will be there," Evie said in a flirty tone. Jane blushed at the implication of Evie's words. It was no secret that both Evie and Mal knew about her crush on the youngest VK, and while part of her wanted to join in and talk to him, she decided against it. I'm on a mission, she told herself.

"No, I'm good. I just really need some rest, haven't been feeling well."

"Feeling sick?" Mal asked, her voice finally not monotone, concern coming across it.

"No, just rundown, what with what happened with Audrey's hair, and continuously apologizing for it."

"When is she going to let that go?" Evie asked. "I mean, you fixed her hair for her after all," Evie told Mal.

"Princesses, never happy," Mal complained. Evie shot Mal a sideways glance. "Present company excluded," Mal backpedaled.

"Better," Evie said as she grabbed her tiara and fixed it on top of her head. "Stay as long as you want, we'll be back in a few hours."

"Thanks," Jane said as she saw the two girls out. Once they were gone, she locked the door and went to work. She knew that Mal kept her spell book in the room, but wasn't sure which hiding spot she was using. During the other times she's been here, she learned that Mal taped it to the top of her closet, a fake bottom in the drawer on her bedside table, or sometimes, in Evie's closet. She doubted that it would be in Evie's closet right now.

Walking over to Mal's closet, she spread the clothes and switched on the light. She walked in and looked up and smiled when she saw the book on the ceiling. Then she cursed her bad luck when she realized that she was too short to just reach up and grab it. Thinking on how to reach it, she grabbed one of the desk chairs and took it into Mal's closet. She got on top of the chair and took a moment to steady herself, and reached up, careful to watch her balance in her kitten heels. She wedged her fingers into an open gap between tape and the ceiling and used it to pull the book down.

She tugged a little harder than she meant to and the book fell to the floor. Leaving the chair where it was to help her return the book later, grabbed it and went to Mal's bed. She began to flip through the pages, reading spell after spell, copying anything that looked interesting, and safe, to try later. Finally after almost an hour, she had copied down almost twenty spells in addition to three spells that had ingredients lists that matched the items she had now. All she needed to narrow it down was a few more ingredients, and she was pretty sure that the raven would take care of that.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 4 - Completing the Spell

Jane was sitting on her bed, reading over the spells she'd copied from Mal's book the previous day. She'd grabbed the one for styling someone's hair, even though she had it memorized, as well as one for conjuring up food, one for causing groups of animals to appear, a few love spells, and more with results she didn't know were possible. She was just about to take her chances with a spell to change her clothes when she heard a knock on her window.

Startled, she jumped slightly and knocked a few of the pages off her bed. She looked over and felt relieved when she saw Harriet on the outside, waving at her. She went over and opened it, helping the blonde climb in.

"Harriet, what are you doing here? How did you even know which room is mine?"

"Freddie told me," Harriet said as she smoothed out her coat and pointed at the beds. "Which one's yours?" Jane pointed at hers and Harriet proceeded to jump on Audrey's. "I still can't get over how comfortable these beds are," she said as she let herself fall backwards, spreading her arms out and taking in the feeling of sinking into the mattress.

Jane cringed as she saw Harriet lying on Audrey's bed. Audrey was the type of person that hated for people to even sit on her bed, let alone lie on it. If it wasn't for the fact that Audrey had just left and wouldn't be back for a few hours, she might have started to freak out, but she wagered she could always smooth it back out and Audrey would be none the wiser.

"Your bed back home isn't comfy?"

"It is, but nothing like this. This is like being on a damn cloud. And it's not moving." Jane looked at her for a moment and Harriet sat back up. "If you haven't guessed it," she said as she puffed out her coat, "I live on a ship."

"Which ship?"

"The S.S. It Doesn't Matter," Harriet answered as she removed her coat and laid it next to her. She fluffed out her hair before looking aback at Jane. "I'm never going back. I'm starting to like it here."

Jane looked at Harriet with a measure of concern, mostly at the revelation that Harriet wanted to stay. She'd already known that her new friend wasn't from here, but she didn't think to ask where she was from and how far away that was. "Where is home?" Jane asked softly.

"Like I said: a ship. That means home was whatever port it docked at. And it's been pretty much everywhere, Auradon proper, Cinderellasburg, Neverland, you name it."

"Orleans?"

"Now what would make you say that?"

"You said you were visiting Freddie, which means you'd have to know her family. She's from there…or at least her dad is," Jane explained.

"Doctor F. – uch," Harriet shivered. "Now there's a creepy fellow. Or so I'm told," she said once she saw the look of suspicion come over Jane's face. "Dad's met him. They're not exactly fond of each other," she added, "Told me to be wary of him, if I ever found myself around him."

"I'll bet, but then again, that's the case with villains; most of them anyway," Jane said. "So, are you and your dad close?"

"Very," Harriet said as she lay down on her side, facing Jane. "Taught me everything I know about the sea, and how to live on a ship. Gave me most of my 'proper' education," she said, air quoting the word proper.

"How did he…?" Jane asked, trying to find a way to gently ask how a pirate was qualified to teach.

"Dad was educated himself, at Eton College." Harriet smiled.

"That's pretty impressive," she said. "Did he ever let you boss the crew around?"

"Only on my birthdays," she laughed. "Said proper command had to be earned through merit, and then maintained; whether that was through fear or respect was up to the person." Harriet watched as Jane raised her eyebrows questioningly. "He kept it through both."

 _Caw!_

Both girls sat up and saw Jane's raven flying into the room. As it glided past them, they watched as it dropped something that it had been clutching in its talon. It came to a stop on Audrey's dresser. It flapped its wings before pulling them in and bobbing its head in the direction of the object.

"I think it's brought you another gift," Harriet told her as she leaned over to look.

Jane got up from her bed and went to inspect her latest bauble. She picked it up and examined it in her hand. It was a branch off a much larger plant. The wood itself was grooved and had some silvery-green leaves attached. "It's a plant," she said. "Like I told you with the rosebud, if you wanted to bring me a flower, you should've gone with blue anemones," she told the bird as she held the plant at eye level and twirled it. The raven squawked, obviously insulted at Jane's words.

"Let me see it," Harriet ordered as she got off the bed. Jane handed her the twig and Harriet inspected it. She chuckled. "This is wormwood, love."

"And you would know that how?"

"Dad and the crew grow some on board; they use it to make cheap rum."

"Okay," Jane said disbelievingly as she made her way over to her nightstand. Harriet watched her pull the drawer all the way out and reach under all the other items inside it. Her hand came out with a small stack of papers that she laid out across the bed. "Where are they?" Harriet heard Jane mutter under her breath. "Ah," she exclaimed as she separated three pages from the bunch. Harriet watched as Jane began going over each page, ticking off ingredients until she picked up one and flicked it with her finger. "This one!"

"'This one' what?" Harriet asked as she came up behind Jane and read the list she was holding. It had every ingredient to match an item that had been brought to her. "Are you sure?"

Jane nodded. "The other two don't mention wormwood."

"So what's it do?" she asked in reference.

"This is a potion list, along with a spell, to turn an animal into a human."

Harriet felt a sense of worry, not just at the revelation of the spell, but at the apparent unknown. She turned back toward the dresser, and set her gaze on the still watching raven. Its head was cocked a little to the side, almost as if it was trying to see around the young pirate. " _You_ want to become human?"

The bird squawked at her, and for reasons she didn't understand yet, Harriet felt unsettled.

"We need to get to Freddie," Jane said as she went to her closet and grabbed one of her cardigans.

"Can I hang out here?" Harriet asked.

"You don't wanna come?"

"I do, but Freddie's all the way across the campus right now, and if you haven't noticed, I kind of stick out," Harriet explained as she presented her current wardrobe. Jane looked perplexed for a second, biting the inside of her cheek. Then, Harriet watched as the same look Jane got days earlier just before moving the apple, crossed her face. "What now, love?"

Jane just smiled back.

Part 5 - The Pirate and the Prince

"I can't believe you were able to do this," Harriet was saying ten minutes later as she and Jane were making their way across campus. She looked down at the clothes Jane had conjured up when she mentioned wanting to stay back in Jane's room due to not wanting to attract attention. Jane had told Harriet to get out of her current clothes and then, in an impersonation that would've made Jane's mother proud, Jane intone the famous bibbidi bobbidi boo, and made a new set of clothes appear on Harriet.

Now the young pirate blended in much better dressed in a white halter top with some midriff showing under a red leather jacket, black ripped jeans, and red sneakers. Harriet also tied her hair back into a pony tail, the length of which reached to the middle of her back, and let her blue eyes, which anyone would say easily rivaled Jane's, be shown off.

"I think casual looks good on you," Jane said as they walked.

"You're not totally wrong," Harriet said as she once again looked down at herself. "Can I keep these? I didn't bring a lot of clothes with me…"

"When you ran away?" Jane said bluntly, her eyes widening at her actions. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."

"It's okay. I guess I kind of did. Although, it wasn't completely on purpose," Harriet told her as they made their way to the library building.

"How do _not_ run away on purpose?" Jane asked.

"Uh, I just happened to be off ship…when the ship left…without me." Jane looked at Harriet in complete shock. "Ease off there, love, I'm sure my father knows I'm gone; he just isn't in the; position right now to come fetch me."

"Are you gonna try and get in touch with him?"

"Eventually, but the ship doesn't have much in the way reliable communications at the moment, so I will cross that obstacle at some later point."

Jane just gave Harriet a quiet "tut" as the two of them entered the library. Harriet marveled at the sight before her. There were more books than she had ever seen in her life; row after row, stack after stack, more books than she ever thought existed. "Wow," she whispered, her eyes widening.

"You alright, Harriet?"

"Yeah, just…wow that's a lot of books."

"Do you wanna look around while I talk to Freddie?" Harriet nodded. "Okay, I – or we – will come get you when we're done."

Without another word, Jane left her friend to herself. Once she was alone, Harriet eventually snapped herself out of her reverie when she realized that she'd been standing alone in the same spot for longer than was necessary. She looked around to make sure that no one was staring at her and wondered where she should begin. Looking up at all the books, a small amount of curiosity over took her.

She walked up to the librarian's desk and cleared her throat gently to get her attention.

"Yes, sweetie, how can I help you?" the plump middle-aged woman asked.

"Do…," Harriet asked, then cleared her throat to shake off her nerves. "Do you have any books on pirates?"

"Several," the librarian answered after a short pause and sideways glance at the young girl in front of her. "Do have a specific subject in mind?"

"Anything on Captain Hook, or the Jolly Roger," she answered with a smile.

"Going straight for the worst of the bunch, huh?"

The smile faded from Harriet's face and she had to fight back the urge to reach over the desk. "I like to think of him as a living legend," she replied with a fake smile, and even faker cheerful tone.

"Well, to each their own," the librarian sarcastically shot back. She then turned toward her computer and typed in a few keystroked. A second later she was handing Harriet a print out of results.

"Thank you, I hope you have a wonderful day," Harriet told her in the most saccharin tone she could muster, ramping up her accent. She began to walk away from the desk, looking over the results when she suddenly realized that she didn't actually know where anything was. She sighed in regret as she walked back to the desk. "Excuse me ma'am, but I don't know where—"

"Take the elevator on the left to the third floor, make a right when you get off, and then just follow the numbers along the stacks," the librarian deadpanned as she pointed.

"Thank you again."

* * *

Jane was waiting outside of the study room where her mother taught Remedial Goodness 101 to the isle kids, or rather kid, considering that it was currently just Freddie. Eventually the door opened and Freddie came walking out. Her eyes looked heavy and she was having trouble not yawning. "And what can I do for you, F.G.?"

Jane tilted her body to look around Freddie and make sure that her mother was still in the study room. "A little birdy left me one of the last ingredients," she whispered.

Freddie's eyes widened and instantly, any sign of exhaustion and boredom were gone from her face. "Seriously? Show it to me," she asked.

"I don't have it here. I left it back at my dorm room with all the other stuff. We figured it was best to come get you in person."

" _We_? Who else did you bring?"

"Harriet," Jane said sheepishly.

"Har…Harriet?" Freddie said, the final part of her statement done in a whisper to keep herself from shouting. "You brought Harriet here?"

"Yeah."

"You do know that she's not exactly from here? And that she sticks out?"

"Which is why I changed her clothes, so she blends in," Jane smiled.

"Blends in? We need to get her; come on," Freddie practically growled as she took Jane's hand and pulled her in the direction of the stacks. "She'll be in aisles, that girl loves to read."

* * *

Once Harriet had located the proper aisle, she perused the stacks until she came to the rows, three in all, that held the books dedicated to the study of her father. There were titles like _Captain Hook: Separating the Man from the Myth_ , _The Hook and the Pan_ , _James Hook and the Jolly Roger_ , _Worst of the Worst: A Biography of Captain James Hook_ , and _Hook: Scourge of Neverland_.

She sat down in between the rows; the aforementioned books spread out around her and began to read one of them. She became both engrossed and enraged at what she was reading. While the book she currently held did have some true information, much of it was exaggerated, twisted, or just plain wrong. Dad may have been hard-nosed, but he was always fair, she thought as she read a page that described him as willing to threaten death as punishment for the smallest infraction or disappointment. And he certainly only threatened execution when confronted with betrayal, she further thought.

"Got a thing for pirates," came a voice from behind her.

She felt herself jump slightly though no one watching would have really been able to tell. She turned and looked behind her at the source of the voice and saw a handsome boy her age with brownish-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a gleaming smile.

"Just doing some light reading," Harriet said as she got up.

"Light?" the boy asked as she could tell he was counting the books. "There's like five books there."

"Yeah, that would only take me a few days," she smiled.

Immediately a smile curled on the boy's lips and Harriet had to admit, it made him look even better. "Smart and pretty, my favorite combination," he told her as he reached down to help her pick up the books. Harriet smiled and felt her cheeks become just a little bit hot. "Hi, I'm Chad," he introduced.

Harriet told him her name as she shook his hand. Chad read the titles on all the books and couldn't help himself, "Apparently you have a thing for a certain pirate. What's so interesting about Captain Hook?"

Harriet lips curled into a smile of her own, and Chad wondered if the feeling in his stomach that told him she was the kind of trouble he'd have a blast with was the same feeling girls had with him.

* * *

Jane and Freddie were walking up and down the third floor, the librarian having told them where she'd directed Harriet to, only to not find her amongst the pirate books. "Do you think she's at one of the tables?" Jane asked trying her best not to sound worried.

"Probably, like I said, she loves to read. What did you say she was wearing again?"

"Red jacket, white shirt, black pants," Jane answered.

"Was her hair in a ponytail?"

"Yeah."

"Then I just found her," Freddie said as she came to a stop. Jane looked in the direction Freddie was and saw Harriet sitting at one of the tables with, of all people; Chad Charming. Upon closer inspection she was surprised at what she was seeing.

"Is she sitting on his lap?" Jane gasped. Freddie nodded her mouth slightly open. Harriet was indeed on Chad's lap, one arm around his neck and shoulders, her lips plastered onto his in a heated make-out session. "Is a guy like Chad her type?"

"Not normally. She's usually not into cheaters, but…"

"She doesn't know Chad," Jane finished.

"Come on," Freddie ordered Jane as she began walking toward the amorous pair. Jane followed and watched as Freddie cleared her throat in an attempt to get Chad and Harriet's attention. When they effectively ignored her, she tried again, becoming frustrated when they once again ignored her. "Harriet," Freddie tried when it became obvious that subtlety was not going to get the job done. "Harriet!" she finally shouted when her first plea went unanswered.

Harriet snapped her head away from Chad's, a noticeable blush creeping to her cheeks as she looked upon her friends catching her in her compromised position. "Having fun?" Freddie asked sarcastically, her smile betraying her impatience.

"I was just, um…"

"She was telling me about pirates," Chad smiled.

"I'll bet she was," Freddie smiled mockingly. "Harriet, we need to go. Jane needs to finish her project," she told the young pirate.

"I can walk her back to her dorm, later," Chad said, a knowing smile on his face.

"I'll bet your girlfriend would love that," Jane muttered a little louder than she meant to. Immediately her eyes widened as she realized that Harriet had heard her. Chad himself looked in Jane's direction and gave her an angry look.

"Girlfriend?" Harriet asked as she grabbed Chad by the face. "You have a girlfriend?"

"I wouldn't use the word _girlfriend_?" he began. "She's more of a…a friend."

"Who happens to be a girl, right?" she asked sarcastically. Chad smiled and nodded. She grabbed his face a little tighter and stood up, bringing Chad up with her. "When you started kissing me I asked you if you had one. You told me no. Was that a lie?"

Chad nodded. Harriet nodded herself, and then smiled at him. The next thing Chad saw was Harriet's arm winding back, and the next thing he felt was the sting of her hand as she slapped him hard enough to send a small echo throughout the floor.

"You're a right bastard," she shouted at him.

"Luckily for me, words don't hurt much," Chad replied smugly as he rubbed his cheek.

"Really?" Harriet shot back. She stormed off, leaving Jane and Freddie wondering what she was going to do.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Jane lamented.

"I'm sure she just went to cool off," Chad said as he began putting his jacket back on. "After all, what could a girl that tiny do in the—"

"Look out!" Jane yelled as a book came flying out from the stacks and hit Chad squarely in the face. Chad screamed in pain, his hands flying to his nose. "Oh my God, Chad, are you okay?"

"I think she broke my nose," he shouted, his hands muffling his voice. When he removed them Jane and Freddie gasped in shock and horror at the amount of blood gushing from Chad's nose.

"Oh I'm gonna break more than that," Harriet shouted as she came charging out of the stacks, a large book in her hands. As she closed the distance, she clutched the book in both hands and began swinging it, hitting Chad wherever she found open space. Chad immediately moved his hands back over his nose to protect it from further harm and moved his body to try and shield himself from the blows. "Still think words don't hurt?" Harriet shouted at him as she continued to pummel him.

At this point Jane and Freddie moved in to restrain Harriet, Freddie pulling the book out of her hands and Jane forcing Harriet backwards. "What the hell?" Chad finally said after the beating had ceased. "I'm gonna have you expelled he shouted as he began gathering up his things from the table.

"Sod off, you cheating—"

"Harriet be quiet," Freddie silenced her friend. "Jane you need to handle this."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Spell him so he forgets this," she answered back. When Jane looked at her, her mouth open and shaking her head, Freddie groaned and continued. "Jane we can't have him telling. We'll never be able to explain what Harriet's doing here, and you and me might _actually_ get expelled."

Jane whimpered and closed her eyes. "Bibbidi bobbidi boo," she chanted and all three girls watched as Chad passed out and fell to the floor.

"Is he?" Freddie asked.

"Asleep. Help me move him back onto the chair." All three girls, Harriet more reluctant than the others, then lifted Chad off the floor and back into his seat.

"Is he gonna remember this?"

"Not after I erase his memory and heal up his nose," Jane answered.

"Let him keep the nose," Harriet said angrily.

"Harry, no," Jane said as she looked at Chad's face and cringed at the amount of blood that had stained it. That looks so bad, she thought.

"Yes, he deserves it, Jane."

I'm gonna get such a huge time out for this, she thought. She took a deep breath and kneeled down in front of the unconscious prince. "A prince and friend with a liar's tongue, let him not remember what has been done, erase the image of our faces, or what occurred in this place."

Harriet and Freddie watched a bright light surrounded Chad's head. They tried not to laugh at the sound of his snorting for fear of waking him. "Is that it?" Harriet asked.

"Yeah, though I still think I should heal his nose."

"It'll heal on its own," Harriet told her. "Now come on, let's get out of here before we're caught."


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 6 - Laying Down Plans**

Jane walked into her room and looked at Audrey's side and was relieved to see it was empty. She walked back to the open door and waved Freddie and Harriet in. "Audrey's still out with the cheerleaders I guess," she told her two friends.

"Good, the last thing we need is to explain little miss punch-a-lot here," Freddie said as she moved towards the chair at Jane's desk. She wanted to sit on the bed, but got beaten there by Harriet.

"It wasn't a punch," Harriet corrected. "It was a book."

"That broke his nose. I mean, don't get me wrong, Chad's not exactly my favorite person, but..."

"Even he didn't deserve that," Jane finished. "People are going to ask him what happened with his nose, and they're gonna wonder what's up when they realize that he doesn't remember how it happened."

"It's not like he's gonna blame you," Harriet said at Jane. "Your spell's gonna make sure of that."

"And that's another thing," Jane started, "I shouldn't be using magic to clean up messes."

"Well I'm sorry I'm such a mess," Harriet said angrily.

"I didn't mean—"

"Next time I'll just let the two-timing bastard—"

"Harriet, stop!" Jane shouted as she slammed her door shut. "I'm not saying you're a mess, or to let Chad do anything to you. I'm just saying I didn't like having to do that, because in case you haven't noticed—I'm a good girl."

Harriet just glared at Jane, her eyes boring into her. Jane looked back, doing her best to hold her own in the stare down, until finally, she heard and saw Harriet break down and begin to giggle. Eventually, the gigging turned to laughing in full blown hysterics. "Is this normal?" Jane asked Freddie. Freddie shrugged.

"I'm sorry Janey, it's just hearing you actually say 'I'm a good girl', it's so, refreshing," Harriet told through her laughter as she fell back on the bed. "And I'm sorry you had to do that, it's just, I…," Harriet began before looking at Freddie, who was shaking her head frantically. "I'll tell you some other time. For now can we just get back to that list your bird's put together?"

"Sure," Jane let out slowly. She went over and grabbed her jewelry box and brought it over to her desk and placed it in front of Freddie. Freddie looked at it skeptically and then shot a look at Jane as if to ask her if she was serious about her hiding place. "Audrey wouldn't look in here; says my jewelry is too 'cheap'."

"That stuck up git," Harriet said from the bed.

"Harry, be nice," Jane corrected her. Harriet snorted in the negative.

"Yeah, Harry," Freddie said herself. Freddie then screamed in surprise when a pillow hit the back of her head. "What the hell?"

"I told you not to call me Harry, Frederique?" Freddie turned and pointed at Jane. "Jane can call me Harry all she wants; _you_ will call me Harriet," she informed the young voodoo practioner, and then turned at smiled at Jane.

"Well then," Freddie said as she turned back to the jewelry box that Jane had opened. She began to read the spell that Jane had given her. She ticked off the contents as she matched them, slightly impressed. Whoever this person was before, they knew their stuff, she thought as she realized the size of the list. "You're sure that this is the right list?"

Jane nodded.

"Why?" Harriet asked.

"If this is the right list, you're still missing an ingredient."

"What?" Jane asked as she walked over to look over Freddie's shoulder. "Harriet even looked at the list."

"That's true."

"The last ingredient isn't on the actual list; it's on one of the steps," Freddie explained. She pointed to the explanation of what to do with everything. "You probably forgot about it since you wrote it down. The spell says to combine the ingredients, and then after adding a piece of the animal, to set them on fire. So we still need a piece of the bird."

"Piece?" Harriet asked.

"A feather will do."

Jane looked back at Harriet and they both shrugged. Jane was just about to start wondering how she would get the feather when Harriet spoke up. "Maybe it's just because I'm the only one here without magic, and therefore able to separate myself from this, but has either of you, while you've been so adamant about whether you _can_ do this, asked yourselves whether you _should_ do this? I mean, none us of know who we're turning human. Maybe he or she was turned for a reason."

"Then why come to Jane?" Freddie asked. Jane gasped in insult.

"No offense, Janey, but you're not exactly known for your magical prowess. Especially after the whole coronations fiasco," Harriet told her, hoping it didn't sound _as_ insulting as probably did.

"That's why you come to Jane. She's got enough magic to get the job done, but knows to ask for help from someone more experienced," Freddie said, smiling at her own humble brag.

"Experienced? You?" Harriet laughed. "You've never practiced magic in your life until you got here."

"Yeah, but Dad showed me his spell book, taught me the basics."

"The last time you did something here, you shrunk your little talent show partner's head."

"Which I turned back, thank you," Freddie added.

"Girls!" Jane shouted to get their attention. "Can we not do this now, please?"

"See, you've upset Jane," Harriet joked.

"No, you did when—" Freddie stopped when she heard Jane's phone go off.

"Hello," Jane answered. Freddie motioned with her finger for Harriet to be quiet, getting a look of obviousness from her. Jane spoke into the phone for about a minute then hung up. "That was Mal, she, Evie, and Audrey are all meeting up at Jordan's to talk about the Friday Night Ball. They want me to meet up with them."

"Why didn't they tell me anything?" Freddie asked. Before Jane could answer, the ringtone from the phone she's been given by Ben upon her arrival went off. She reached for it and saw the text. "Okay, so my presence has been requested as well."

"I guess that means I'll be on my own for the rest of the day," Harriet said.

"Not for a few more minutes," Jane corrected. Freddie and Harriet looked at her confused. "It might not look too good if both of us show up together," Jane told Freddie. "So maybe, I stay behind a few minutes, let Harriet pack up her original clothes, and then leave. I mean I am the only with a key to this room right now."

"I agree with the fairy," Harriet said gleefully.

"You would," Freddie said rolling her eyes. "But fine, I guess I'll see you a few minutes after I get there. We'll do the spell in a couple days. Friday might be best since we have a half-day. Tell no one," she instructed as she got up and left.

As soon as Freddie was gone Jane began packing up the ingredients and put the jewelry box away. "I can probably keep us in our little meeting for two hours, so…do want me to lock the door behind me and you leave out the window so you can hang out for a while more?" Jane asked with a smile as she sat next to Harriet.

"You just wanted to get rid of Freddie?" Harriet asked. Jane nodded. "Janey, I'm gonna give you some advice: be careful around Freddie."

"Careful? I thought you two were friends?"

"We are," Harriet responded, "That's how I know to tell you to be careful. I like the girl, I do, she is nice- _ish_ ; but she has a habit of looking out for herself before others, and she has no problem letting others take the blame to save her own hide."

"And what about you?"

Jane saw Harriet flinch and swallow hard at the question, and immediately regretted speaking it. Here was Harriet, trying to protect her to an extent, and Jane was getting accusatory.

"I'm…I have moments of honor mixed with my bad side. Growing up on the ship, you learn to trust the people next to you. They do right by you and you do right by them, long as they don't double cross you which means someone gets booted off. Again, that's why I'm telling you; you've been nothing but nice to me since we met; nicer than anybody's ever been to me, and I feel the need to pay it back. Be careful."

Jane smiled and even though she wasn't completely sure about Harriet's comfort with physical signs of emotion, she went with her instincts and hugged her friend. "Thank you," she said, almost laughing at the look of shock on Harriet's face at the suddenness of the hug. "And I know to be careful with Freddie; I'm not completely clueless."

"But…?"

"I have this feeling, in the pit of my stomach that I need to do this. That…that bird is _somebody_ , and they need to be human. I can't explain it, I…I just have to, and if dealing with Freddie gets me closer to helping him, or her, then that's what I have to do."

Harriet stared at her new friend, and felt an overwhelming sense of trepidation. She knew that people needed to do whatever their hearts and minds told them, but she also knew that people needed to be protected. "If anything happens, you come get me, and I'll do what I can to help you, okay?"

"Okay. But there's a flaw in that idea," Jane told her.

"Which is?"

"I have no clue where you're staying?"

Harriet looked at Jane blankly for a second, and then, without warning, both girls burst out laughing.

 **Part 7 – Toil and Trouble; Fire Burn and Here Comes Trouble**

Mal and Evie were in their room, Evie carefully measuring out some fabric and Mal sitting on her bed, her focus on her sketch pad when suddenly someone started pounding on their door. They looked at each other in surprise at the urgency of the knocking until finally they heard the voice of the person on the other end of the door.

"Mal, open up!"

Evie rolled her eyes and Mal just let her head fall and hang. Finally, after both of them had groaned in frustration at the thought of dealing with Audrey, Evie got up and answered. She quickly back stepped as the door flew open from Audrey practically barreling it down.

"Mal have you been teaching Jane magic?" the school's resident pink princess demanded as she stood before Mal's bed.

"What?" Mal asked as she looked up.

"Jane. Have you been teaching her magic?" she asked again, slower this time.

"No," Mal told her dryly.

"Then why did I find this list of what looks like ingredients in her closet?" Audrey asked accusingly as she held out a sheet of paper out for Mal to take.

"And why were you looking through her closet?" Mal asked as she took the paper and began examining it. Evie came over and began reading over Mal's shoulder. "It does look like ingredients for a spell or potion," Evie said, worry in her voice.

"I know," Mal agreed.

"Well," Audrey interrupted them. Both girls looked back at her with confusion on their faces. "What does it do?"

"Don't know," Mal said standing up.

"Don't you have like a spell book or something you can look it up in?"

"Yes Audrey, I do," Mal fired back sarcastically as she went to her own closet. Audrey and Evie assumed she was going for the aforementioned book, but were surprised when she got out her leather jacket and began putting it on. "The problem is I don't know where to start looking. Luckily, I know someone who might know what this does, and _she_ wouldn't need a book. Come on."

Audrey and Evie moved to keep up as Mal raced out the door, not actually waiting for them. They asked where they were going, but she refused to tell them. In a few minutes however, the answer became clear as they eventually walked into and through the administration offices and finally came to Fairy Godmother's office.

"Girls, hello," Fairy Godmother said cheerfully as the three young girls walked into her office. "What can I do for you?"

"Mal's been teaching Jane magic," Audrey blurted out before anyone could speak.

Fairy Godmother looked at Mal in a chastising way, her eyebrow raised questioningly. "No, no I have not," she immediately told the headmistress. "I have not been teaching her anything," she said just under breath in Audrey's direction. She turned back toward the Fairy Godmother and pulled out the slip of paper Audrey had given her and handed it over. "Audrey said she found this in Jane's stuff and thought I gave it to her."

"And I'm hoping you didn't?" Fairy Godmother asked as she took the paper and began to put on her reading glasses.

"No ma'am. The problem is, it looks like an -"

"An ingredient list," the older fairy finished. "Oh no," she gasped as she read over the list.

"What's it do?" Mal asked when she saw the concern come over Jane's mother's face.

"These ingredients, they're for a transformation spell. When brought together and set on fire, they can turn a person into an animal, or vice versa."

"Jane's trying to turn herself into an animal?" Evie asked. "She'd look adorable as a bunny."

"I highly doubt that Jane's trying that," Audrey told the young bluenette.

"But she might try to turn an animal, especially after the whole thing with your hair," Mal said.

"What thing with Audrey's hair?" Fairy Godmother asked.

The three young girls looked at each other sheepishly. In their haste to alert Jane's mother, they each didn't think about the fact that maybe Jane hadn't told her mother about casting a spell to change Audrey's hair. Now they were effectively busted, and adding another layer of trouble for their friend.

"Girls, what thing with Audrey's hair?"

At the sound of the Fairy Godmother obviously slipping into disciplinarian mode, all three of them immediately realized why Jane was so afraid to get in trouble. The tone of her voice was enough to send chills through the three of them. Audrey wasn't used to such a tone, and for Mal and Evie, they weren't ashamed to admit that that tone was just as frightening as anything their own mothers were capable of.

"Do not make me ask again young ladies."

At that point, Audrey began telling how she'd made Jane use the hair changing spell on her, with less than stellar results, and how apparently she'd neglected to inform Fairy Godmother herself. "You don't look that surprised that Jane cast a spell," Audrey mentioned as she saw that Fairy Godmother didn't seemed fazed by the knowledge of her daughter's talents.

"Well like Mal, she is half-fairy, so it's no real surprise, but you should've brought her to me so I could've helped her deal with that knowledge. Now I have this to deal with," she explained as she help up the paper. "She's probably got the spell from your book when you weren't noticing," she told Mal.

Mal immediately looked upset and Fairy Godmother realized that it sounded like she was scolding her. "I didn't mean it to sound like that, Mal. Jane's always been curious about magic, begging me to teach her some of it. But what I want to know is why she focused on _this_ spell. Has Jane been keeping a pet or anything?" Fairy Godmother asked. The three teenage girls remained silent. "Well, come on girls, don't _any_ of you know? Surely you must have noticed if you've hung out with her at all?"

"Jane…," Mal began timidly, "Jane kind of keeps to herself. We try to get her to hang out with us more than she cares to, but…," she trails off.

"What about you Audrey, you're her roommate, you must have seen something?"

Audrey bit her lip. "The only thing that sticks out is, well…"

"Spill it or you'll spend the next month ringing the school's bells like your Quasimodo," Fairy Godmother threatened, causing the eyes of all three girls to widen in fear.

"A bird's been hanging around our room. A big, black bird," Audrey answered without missing a beat after the question.

At the revelation of what kind of animal Jane had begun seeing; Mal and the Fairy Godmother both looked concerned. Even Evie looked worried. All three expressions were lost on Audrey who just looked at them confused.

"A b-black bird?" Mal asked.

"You mean a raven?" Fairy Godmother added.

"I guess, I'm not a bird expert," Audrey replied.

"Was he about this big?" Mal asked gesturing with her hands. Audrey nodded. "A black beak, and eyes that were completely black and shiny, almost like mirrors?" Another nod. "Oh God," Mal began breathing heavily, the concern on her face turning to fear. Even Fairy Godmother looked quite terrified now. "Not him, not here."

"What's the big deal about a bird?" Audrey asked.

"Do you really think it's him?" Evie asked.

Mal nodded.

"It's _who_?" Audrey asked, growing afraid of their reactions.

"Diablo," both Mal and Fairy Godmother said in unison.

Diablo; Maleficent's most trusted ally. Her second-in-command. Almost as feared as his mistress. At the sound of his name, Audrey felt herself join the other three in fright as a chill went straight through her, down to he bones. While she wasn't an expert on birds, she was an expert on that name. She'd heard the name countless times growing up. Being Sleeping Beauty's daughter, she was taught to hold that name in the same fear and disdain as Maleficent herself.

"But…but Diablo's dead?"

"No, he's very much alive," Mal corrected.

"And still scary as hell," Evie added.

"We need to find her," Fairy Godmother said as she began running out of her office.

* * *

"Okay, so the bird brought us all the ingredients, except for -"

"Midnight," Freddie heard Jane interrupt her.

"Huh?" she questioned.

"The bird; I named him Midnight."

"Why?"

"Because of how dark he is. That and because his feathers actually reflect the light a little bit, kind of like the moon does at, well, midnight," Jane explained as she Freddie sat under the apple tree where they met to research the apparent ingredients Midnight starting brining to her.

As Jane sat there smiling, Freddie just looked at her like she was a few cards shy of a full deck. "Un-huh," Freddie finally let out slowly. "As I was saying; we have all the ingredients except for one of – _Midnight's_ – feathers.

Just then, as if the mere mentioning of his newly christened name had called him, both girls heard a loud squawk. They both jumped from the surprise, nearly knocking over the plate containing the assembled ingredients. They looked up and saw Diablo above them, perched on one of the tree's larger branches. After a small second, Diablo squawked once more, and then flew down next to them. He flapped his wings in an effort to shake them, and them began twitching his head, almost as if examining the ground.

When he saw that the ground still lacked any fallen plumage, he walked over toward Jane and let out another caw and shook out his wings.

"I think he wants you pluck one," Freddie told her as she eyed the black raven with a slight amount of dread.

Jane looked at Freddie and mouthed "are you sure", and Freddie just shrugged back. "Is that what you want?" she asked the dark bird softly.

 _Caw_.

"Okay, I'll try to be gentle," she told him as she gripped him as lightly as possible and picked him up off the ground. Here goes nothing, she thought once he had settled into her grip, and proceeded to grab a hold of one of the tail feathers. Diablo twitched in her arm and let out a small caw.

"Easy Midnight, you're the one who came to me remember," Jane soothed. Once again, she waited for the raven to settle down, and then, closing her eyes and holding her breath, gave a quick pull. She felt Diablo move aggressively in her arm and let out a piercing call, but was relieved to notice that he wasn't actually attacking.

"Sweet, you got it," Freddie said as she reached over and took the feather from Jane's hand. She then added the feather to the other assembled items in the plate and pulled out a lighter. "Okay, do you know what to say once I light this?" she asked Jane.

Jane nodded. "Spent all night memorizing it."

"All night? It's like four lines."

"Five, and I want to get it right," Jane told her. "Now just light the stuff, I want to see if I can make him human again."

"Okay, okay, calm down F.G.," she told Jane as she proceeded to flick the lighter. "One custom conjured boyfriend coming right up."

"That's not what I'm doing this for," Jane said as she stroked Diablo's feathers soothingly. "Okay, let's put you down here, and we'll start."

Jane set Diablo down next to plate between them. He once again shook his wings, almost as if he was shaking himself, preparing for the inevitable transformation. Freddie took the feather and held it up, next to the lighter, but not close enough to ignite it. She looked over at Jane and nodded.

Jane nodded back, took a breath and closed her eyes. "Corporis formavit; A mutationem desideravit; Exaudi in magica; Mutare artus; Novus fieri per ignem"

When Jane stopped chanting Freddie closed the distance between the lighter and the feather. Once the flame had touched the black barb, it engulfed it almost immediately. Reacting quickly, Freddie dropped it into the plate and watched as the rest of the ingredients began to become consumed by the fire, before suddenly a loud pop was heard by both girls. Almost immediately a thick gray smoke began to rise. They leaned back, neither wanting to be accidentally exposed to the effects of the potion and spell.

Diablo closed in.

 **Part 8 - Becoming Human**

Fairy Godmother, Mal, Evie, and Audrey were running through the school's grounds. The three teenage girls were surprised at the older fairy's speed considering the 3-inch heels she was wearing. Students who had decided to spend the beautiful half-day outside looked upon the group in confusion.

Finally, when she neared a small knoll, Fairy Godmother stopped. When Mal, Evie, and Audrey caught up they tried to catch their breath while searching the grassy expanse.

"What are…," Mal began as she tried to breathe while she spoke. Wow, I must really be out of shape, she thought. "What are we looking for?"

"The tree line near the back gate," Fairy Godmother answered. "Jane likes to sit under them when she wants to think or be alone. She says most of the students stay near center of the grounds or school proper."

Within seconds, all four eyes were scouring the edge of the grounds. Why does this area have to be so huge, Fairy Godmother thought as her eyes travelled over every tree she could see. "There she is," she heard Evie shout. Looking over in the direction that Evie was pointing, Fairy Godmother spotted her daughter, and another student, sitting under a massive apple tree near the back corner of the grounds. She gave out a sigh of relief at the sight of Jane physically okay. Her heart however, almost stopped at the sight of a black bird nestled between the girls.

"God no," she gasped and began running. "Jane!"

* * *

Jane thought she heard her mother's voice. She began looking around and saw her running toward her and Freddie. Upon closer inspection, she saw that her mother was being followed by Mal, Evie, and Audrey.

"What's your Mom doing here?" Freddie asked.

"She's here to kill me," Jane said in fear and defeat.

Before Freddie could respond, both girls heard Diablo begin to caw relentlessly. They looked down and saw that he was practically convulsing. He was making for a direction away from them, his previous gait which was almost a swaggering strut, was now choppy and looked to be done under great effort. "Is he okay?" Freddie asked.

"I don't know," Jane answered the dread evident in her voice. Please tell me I didn't just kill an innocent bird, she thought.

"Jane! Get away from him," Fairy Godmother's voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and saw that her mother was practically on top of her now. When she'd closed in enough, Jane felt her mother's hands grab her and pull her off the ground and away from the dark bird. Mal did the same for Freddie when she'd finally caught up.

"Mal, let go," Freddie screeched as she batted away Mal's hands.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I think I did the spell wrong. The bird, he's, he's…"

"He's changing," Freddie shouted as she pointed toward Diablo.

The entire group looked over and saw that Freddie was right. The convulsions had grown stronger. Diablo was cawing non-stop now. His wings were flapping violently, almost as if he was trying to shrug them off. Eventually, his whole body began to throb and pulse. The pulsations grew in intensity until soon they all watched as the moderately large bird began to grow. At first he doubled in size, and then he double again. His feathers began to fall, revealing a black hide that was rapidly turning gray, and then began to look as though flesh tones were bleeding out.

Jane and Freddie's excitement gave way to fear however when they saw that now he was becoming more man than bird. His head had finally formed, but the beak was slowly receding. What began as cawing and squawking was now becoming groaning and shouting in a human voice. Wings had become arms, and his previously thin legs had given way to long legs. In both cases, the sound of bones crunching was heard as his skeleton forced itself into proper form.

 _Caw!_

 _Ca—_

 _C_

"Ahhh," came a pained scream from the black beak, the only thing left that was still avian.

The assembled females watched as the now fully formed man stopped screaming. His beak had finally given way to a nose and mouth. He was hunched over on the ground on his hands and knees, panting for breath. The exertion of the change had winded him, but it was over now. Surprisingly, he found himself clothed in ratty black pants and a simple black shirt. The clothes he'd been wearing when he was turned all those years ago. His hair was matted with sweat but it hung down. It covered his eyes which meant that it was longer than he usually kept it, but it was there. With one arm he began to grab at his other arm. He gripped it, feeling the muscles flex as he squeezed. Next he put his hand to his chest. He could feel his heart beating inside himself.

It worked, he thought, I did it. She did it.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself off the ground and stood. His legs wobbled under him since he still wasn't used to standing on human legs anymore. Finally, after getting his bearings he looked back towards the gathered females. What they saw was a man who stood right around six-feet tall with black hair that they were now able to tell was down to about his cheeks but was unable to hide the blue eyes that shone from behind them. He was thin but lean making it so he wasn't lanky despite the oversized nature of his clothes trying to make it look otherwise.

He saw the Fairy Godmother and Jane as well as Mal and Evie and two girls who he didn't know.

"Guess who's back," Diablo said, his voice slightly gaveled, but his smile showing his glee.

The looks of fear were evident on all their faces, though each had it to a varying degree. The most terrified however was the Fairy Godmother herself. Instinctually she pushed Jane, and then Mal, behind her.

"Oh my God, we did it," Freddie said, her fear abated after realizing that her and Jane were successful.

"This is not a good thing, Freddie," Mal said, her voice almost shaking.

"Back away slowly girls," Fairy Godmother instructed them.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Just do as I say, Jane."

"Aww, that hurts," Diablo said through a wicked grin. "That you'd think I'd hurt _her_. You know me better than that, baby."

"Don't call me that," Fairy Godmother told him coldly. She was doing her best to control her voice, to not let the girls see and know just how terrified she actually was.

Diablo let out a small chuckle and another wicked grin. "You used to like it."

"W-what do you want?" Mal asked as she peeked out from behind Fairy Godmother.

Diablo's face turned from amused to serious almost instantly. "To right some wrongs against me, Pumpkin."

"Don't you dare call her that," Fairy Godmother cried out, the anger in her voice overriding her fear. "You have no right."

"I have every right to call her that. And I've every right to everything that I'm going to do from here on out, thanks to my darling little Fairy Goddaughter."

At the sound of Diablo using Jane's little used sobriquet, Fairy Godmother became enraged. Mustering up as much power as she could, she pulled back her arm and then thrust it forward, letting loose a barrage of light directly at Diablo. Diablo, not expecting that particular reaction was unable to move out of the way in time. His reflexes were fast enough however that he was able to at least get his arms up to protect his chest and face from a direct hit.

When the blast hit him he was knocked into the air and flew back about six feet before finally hitting the ground. The now five teenage girls watched in shock, not just at the display of power from the usually chipper and peaceful Fairy Godmother, but from the fact that Diablo had survived it, and was now getting up. He shook off the effects of the blast and the fall and turned back toward Fairy Godmother.

"That was…unexpected," he half-joked, still shaking his head. His voice was less gravelly now, returning to its normal timbre. "But not what you're really capable of now is it? _You_ are out of practice."

"Practice this," Fairy Godmother snarled back as she reached back with her left arm and took Jane's hand in her own, and then with her right hand fired another beam of light at Diablo.

Diablo's eyes grew wide in panic at this salvo. Knowing that Fairy Godmother was channeling Jane's power to supplement her own, he knew that this time, the blast would be more on par with her normal power level, and that that _would_ be fatal. Luckily for him, the first hit had shaken loose the last of the cobwebs in his mind and he was able to react more quickly. He dodged the projected blast and pushed his hand out toward the group. Unlike Fairy Godmother, he didn't project any kind of energy attack, instead opting for simply forcing them all back and off their feet.

Fairy Godmother sat back up and looked behind her to make sure that the girls were okay. When she deduced that no one was seriously injured, she turned her attention back to Diablo. "Wouldn't hurt her would you?" she asked, throwing his earlier declaration back at him.

"Getting knocked on your ass doesn't cause damage. Just makes it easier to go on the run," he shot back as winked at her, and then blowing a final kiss in her direction, made a dash for the gate. Fairy Godmother, and the girls, watched as Diablo ran toward a tree nearest the back gate and climbed it quickly, almost as if he flew up its length. Fairly Godmother raised her hand and a ball of energy materialized in her palm. Before she could throw it however, Diablo had already jumped from the tree onto the gate, and finally to the other side where she no longer had a clear shot.

She turned back and grabbed Jane by the shoulders, inspecting her daughter, making she was physically alright, despite the fact that Jane had not been touched by anything other than the ground when she fell. "Are you okay?"

"What was that?" Jane asked, the fear in her voice making her sound slightly squeaky.

"Are you okay?" Fairy Godmother repeated, louder this time.

"Yes," Jane responded, her own voice raised to match her mother's. "What…? _Who_ was that?"

"Someone very bad," she answered her daughter. She looked up and back toward the grounds. Several students were looking on in confusion and terror, a display of magic almost unknown to them. She saw two of the school's guards making their way over. Preferring not to waste time informing them, she knew she needed to act quickly. "Girls, holds hands," she instructed.

Mal, Evie, Audrey, Freddie, and Jane all did as they'd been told, no one wanting to question her at the moment. Fairy Godmother them placed her hands on Jane's shoulders and closed her eyes. Suddenly, in a cloud of lavender smoke, they all disappeared just as the guards had made it to them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 9 - Sounding the Alarms**

Belle was sitting her library, curled up with a new book in one of the bay windows. A cup of tea was on the table beside her, its contents having long since gone cold. She'd been here for the past few hours and had lost track of the time while sitting. She'd have probably been here for at least another couple of hours, still in the same spot when Adam came to get her for dinner, had it not been for the intrusion of Fairy Godmother and the girls. Their entrance was enough to snap the Queen Mother out of her reverie.

"Oh my," she gasped, curling in an effort to protect herself. "What are you all doing here? And why didn't you just use the doors?"

"Belle, we have an emergency, we need to get Adam and Ben now," Fairy Godmother told her quickly.

"Fairy Godmother, calm down," Belle said soothingly as she got up and held Fairy Godmother steady by her shoulders.

"Calm down?" Mal asked, her voice filled with fear. "Calm down? We have a full on life and death threat to kingdom here."

"Life and death?" Belle asked.

"Diablo's here," Mal shouted.

Belle's eyes immediately shot open and she felt the color drain from her face and her heat speed up a little. "D-Diablo?"

"Dagon now," Fairy Godmother added.

The teenage girls watched as Belle actually shivered in fear. "Girls, stay here," she told Mal, Jane, and the others. "We'll go get…we'll go get Ben and Adam," she said, her voice hollow as if she was speaking automatically more than intentionally. Without speaking any further, the girls watched as Belle and Fairy Godmother made a quick exit from the library.

* * *

Ben and Adam were sitting in the palace's meeting hall; an assembled council of representatives from the neighboring kingdom's amassed at the large table for the monthly meeting of the sidekicks. As usual, there was a small amount of bickering and infighting but it was mostly civilized, and the noise was at a minimum due to the presence of both Ben and Adam, though mostly Adam.

Suddenly, the doors to the hall flew open and Belle and Fairy Godmother came rushing in.

"Mom?"

"Belle, sweetie, what are you doing here?" Adam asked as he got up from his chair.

"You need to end this meeting," Belle told him as she looked at her husband. Adam could see that his wife was agitated over something, but he was reluctant to just end a meeting that was rather important.

"But Mom, we just got started a little while ago," Ben said as he made his way over to stand next to his father.

"Please, you need to listen to her, Adam," Fairy Godmother implored as she approached the royal family. "We have an emergency."

"I'm sure whatever it is can—"

Belle didn't let him finish. She held her hand over his mouth to silence him and then gently pulled his head down to hers. Looking past him at the assembled council members, all of who were looking at her with confusion, she brought her lips to her husband's ears and whispered what Fairy Godmother had told her in the library.

Adam raised his head and Belle saw the calm expression that was there before had been replaced by a steeled gaze, one that probably hid his true dread over what he'd just heard. "I'm sorry, but this meeting is adjourned," he told the council as he turned to face them.

"Dad?"

"Ben, this meeting is over," he told his son.

"But Dad, I'm the only one who can call an end to a meeting, remember?" he explained.

"Then call it," he ordered his son, using a tone he normally reserved for when Ben was little and didn't want to listen to his parents.

"Not until you tell me what's going on. I'm sure whatever it is, the council will understand."

Adam looked back at his wife, and then at Fairy Godmother. "They're going to find out eventually, at least this way, they can get their kingdoms prepared," Fairy Godmother advised.

Adam closed his eyes, took a deep breath and dreaded the news that he was about to deliver. He turned back toward the council members, all of whom were now looking more nervous than confused and spoke. "Maleficent's second-in-command, Diablo, has apparently been spotted in Auradon, and he's been returned to human form."

Ben watched as the face of every member of the council went from nervous to terrified in the time it took to blink. A few of them even looked as though they might become sick or even faint from the news. "H-human?" Grumpy asked. "So you don't mean Diablo anymore; you mean _Dagon's_ returned?"

Adam nodded.

"Are you sure?" Genie asked.

"Yes," Fairy Godmother asked. "I-I saw him with my own eyes. And he says he's here to right the wrongs done to him."

Almost immediately, the council began talking all at once, each member trying to be heard over the other in an attempt to ask what was going to be done or to express their own fears of what Dagon might do.

"Everyone," Adam called out in an attempt to quiet them. When it didn't work, he spoke again, his voice this time carrying its infamous roar. "Everyone quiet! Now I understand that this is not good news, and some of you may be understandably scared, but we cannot lose control of what we _can_ control. All you, return to respective kingdoms, let your rulers know what's happened and let them know that we will be in contact soon. If they wish lend assistance, they can get in contact with the palace to do so. Be safe."

 **Part 10 - The Blame Game**

Once all the council members had left, Adam, Belle, Ben, and Fairy Godmother went back to Belle's library where Mal, Evie, Freddie, Audrey, and Jane were all seated. Almost all of their faces looked scared to varying degrees, Jane's the most. They walked into the room, well, Ben, Belle, and Fairy Godmother walked, Adam might as well have been charging into it.

"How did this happen?" Adam demanded.

"Adam, calm down," Belle tried, only to be rebuffed by her husband.

"Calm down? Belle, one of the most feared enemies in all of Auradon has been released back into its midst, and you want me to calm down?"

"Yes, because you're scaring the girls," she whispered.

"It's alright, Belle," Fairy Godmother said, "truth be told, the girls are pretty well spooked after what they saw."

"I'll ask again, what happened?" Adam asked as he stood before the girls.

"Well, this…this is all my fault," Jane began. She spent the next few minutes recounting the events of the past week, albeit with some careful omissions to protect Harriet since no one knew the girl was even there. As she got to the part where her and Freddie were in the grounds, casting the spell she could swear she saw the vein in Adams forehead begin to throb. When she was done, she just stared up at him, fear at both the situation and at the scolding that she knew was coming.

"Are you trying to destroy the kingdom?" Adam asked; his voice strained as he did his best to not yell.

At the sound of the question Jane's emotions got the better of her, and all the excitement, nerves, and now, overwhelming fear from what she'd witnessed on the school grounds and anger from Adam, all unleashed themselves in one mighty show. She felt her lips quiver, her cheeks became hot, and the tears began falling in uncontrollable and unrelenting rivers from her sparkling blue eyes.

"Adam!" Belle and Fairy Godmother yelled at him.

Fairy Godmother immediately went to her daughter, wrapping her arms around her and felt her heart break for her as Jane buried herself into her mother. She could feel her blouse become moist from Jane's tears and everyone could hear the muffled "I'm sorry" being repeated as she tried to beg for forgiveness.

"Don't 'Adam' me," he told both of them. "First she punches a hole in the barrier around the isle in a misguided attempt at a makeover, and now, she might as well have released the devil himself. Honestly Jane, what is going through that head of yours?" he yelled at Jane.

"No, don't you dare yell at her," Fairy Godmother shouted back as she stepped between the former king and her daughter. "Jane had no clue what she was doing, alright? This, along with what happened at the coronation, were both accidents."

"Accidents? Are we sure they're not just part of her personality rising to the surface. After all, we all know what her father was cap—"

The slap from Fairy Godmother to Adam's cheek echoed throughout the library, and caused everyone in the room to become quiet. No one expected such a reaction from the normally calm, peaceful, and usually composed woman. Also startling was the look in her eyes. In all her years, few people could ever be quoted as saying that they'd seen pure rage in her eyes, but everyone in that library were no longer among that group. They all saw Fairy Godmother staring daggers into Adam, and hoped that those were only kind she'd decide to use.

"Don't you _ever_ mention her father; do you hear me – ever."

"I'm just saying what everyone will be thinking once word spreads that she turned Dagon back into a human. They'll all assume that she did it on purpose when they remember what she did to the barrier," he explained. He moved his gaze to Jane, who after her mother had gotten up was now being consoled by of all people, Mal. He took a deep breath to calm his voice, though his angered expression never left. "I told you we should have stripped her of her powers when she was born. Then this would've never happened. But now, now we have to go and fix another of her messes."

"I'm sorry," Jane shouted as she pulled herself away from Mal. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it," she sobbed as she looked at Adam, feeling horrible for what she caused, and heartbroken that the one of persons she looked to as a father figure was looking at her like she was deserving of being sent to the Isle. Before anyone could react, she took off running, exiting the library as fast as her legs would carry her.

"Jane," Fairy Godmother cried after her.

Ben, Mal, and Evie ran after her, hoping to catch up and bring her back.

"You were far too hard on her," Belle told him as she went after the kids, praying that they'd caught up to her.

"Jane, wait," Ben called after Jane as he ran after her. He could here Mal and Evie behind him, calling after her as well, but Jane refused to stop let alone look back.

When she came to the end of the hallway, she looked to the right and left, and didn't know which way to turn. She looked behind her and saw Ben, Mal, and Evie gaining up to her. Without a plan, she closed her eyes, and through her sobs, uttered a barely audible, "bibbidi bobbidi boo."

The trio watched as Jane disappeared in a cloud of dark blue smoke. They then began heading back to the library, Belle leading them in.

"Where is she?" Fairy Godmother asked, undisguised anguish on her face.

"We don't know," Mal answered.

"What do mean you don't know?"

"She…she teleported away," Evie said, shocked at the words. "Did she learn that from you?" she asked Fairy Godmother who shook her head. Everyone looked to Mal next.

"No. Everyone needs to stop looking at me like I'm teaching her these things. Jane's fascinated with magic, been exposed to it, and now knows she's capable of it. On top of that, she's smarter than we give her credit for. She probably taught herself."

"Oh my god," Fairy Godmother began to cry. Belle immediately went to her friend and pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay, we'll find her," she consoled.

"I'm sure wherever she went, it's somewhere she feels safe," Adam added.

"Safe. Safe?" Fairy Godmother said as she released herself from Belle and once again confronted her former king. "She's safe with me, now more than ever now that Dagon is back. But instead of being here, she's run off because once again you had to prove you're nothing more than a hot-head who falls back on animal instinct rather being the man he claims to be. She looks at you like a fa-," Fairy Godmother ranted, pausing herself as she collected her thoughts. "If anything happens to her before I find her, so help me, you'll spend the rest of your life as a beast because unlike the enchantress, I'll make it permanent."

 **Part 11 – Old Friends, New Friends**

The clock tower on the grounds of Auradon Prep was a relatively new addition to the property. It was built when King Adam turned the 300-year-old mansion into a school. It was constructed with a façade that was meant to match the look of the weathered, yet well maintained, building it was going to accompany. The inside however, was built to be the best that day's modern technology could afford. Even today, despite some minor changes in the clocks gear work, it was still that same technology that worked every day without fail. In fact, it was so well put together, that it almost never needed maintenance, meaning the building sat unattended…

…though not unoccupied

For the past several weeks Harriet Hook had called the Auradon Prep Clock Tower home. When she and Freddie first arrived in Auradon, Freddie was naturally assigned a place to live in Auradon Prep's dorms once Ben decided to let her stay. Harriet naturally realized the same courtesy would not be extended to her since no but Freddie knew she was here, but she'd hoped to be able to crash in Freddie's room. That plan was dashed when Freddie informed her that she also had a roommate. And so began the search for a place to stay.

At first she tried hiding out in the common rooms of the dorm halls and waiting until everyone went to bed for her to sleep on the couches. The janitors made short work of that idea, waking her most nights and telling her to get back to her own room so they could clean. After the fifth time being discovered, they threatened to inform the Fairy Godmother.

Next came searching for empty rooms, but nowhere she searched was devoid of enough people for her to properly check. Finally, after Ben had finally found the time to give Freddie her proper tour of the school and its grounds did the idea of the clock tower become the best suggestion for the moment.

Right now she sat on the floor in the tower's basement, just under the window that viewed out into the ground level of the area of the promenade that lead to it. Her attention was focused on the book she was reading, one of the biographies on her father that Jane had checked out for her days earlier. That attention was shattered when she heard a loud knock on the door to the room she was occupying. When she didn't get up right away, the knocking became more insistent.

"What Freddie?" she whispered as she cracked open the door.

"You need to stop assuming it's always going to be me on the other side of this door," Freddie told her.

"Considering you're the only one who knows that I'm here, I'm safe assuming."

Freddie just gave Harriet a look of derision and tried to push her way in. "In polite societies, you ask for entrance into someone's home, or wait for an invitation," Harriet smiled as she held the door cracked open.

"First off this isn't your home. And second, this is an emergency. Me and Jane did the spell, and apparently let loose a guy feared by everybody in every kingdom. On top of that, Adam yelled at Jane and she's missing." Harriet shook her head and then peeked back into her room. "What?"

Harriet held her finger to her lips and then said, "Whisper please," as she opened the door further and let Freddie in. Freddie made her way in slowly and then almost gasped out loud when she saw Jane sleeping on Harriet's makeshift bed. She pointed at her, waiting for Harriet to explain. "She popped in here about an hour ago in a puff of smoke. The poor little thing was crying her eyes out, saying something about she didn't mean to 'let someone so bad loose'?" Harriet asked.

Freddie then went into detail about what happened when they did the spell on the raven, and then what happened once he was human, and the confrontation with King Adam. "I told you two that something like this could happen, didn't I? But did you want to listen to me?"

"Chill out, Harriet, I heard every word, but I just figured giving Diablo a helping hand might be beneficial for us. It's not every day you get to say that you have a guy like him owing you a favor," Freddie smiled.

Harriet's eyes widened at her friend's revelation. Why that cocky little git, she thought. "You knew that was Diablo didn't you?" she asked, her anger coming out slightly.

Freddie shrugged her shoulders. "I had a hunch."

"A _hunch_?"

"Dad always told me stories about him, how much Maleficient actually loved him, both as a pet and as a guy; because apparently when he and all the other villains were placed on the island, he was turned into a human. And according the stories, he was a real vicious man at that."

"And you just think a person who's described as vicious is someone you want a favor from?"

"Well it can't hurt."

"Yes it can," Harriet almost screamed. She then stopped herself before she said anything else that might come out as a scream so she didn't wake Jane. "Yes it can," she whispered after composing herself. "You're not the only one whose father told her stories of Diablo. My Dad once told me how once all of them were on the island, Diablo nearly killed the Horned-King and Hades for Maleficent in her struggle for power. _Hades_! A freaking god and the only reason he let him live was because Maleficent backed him off. That's who you're dealing with."

"Okay, Dad never mentioned that," Freddie said as she moved toward Harriet's make-shift bed and looked at Jane. "You do know that once Fairy Godmother's spells find Jane, she'll be knocking on that door next? How are you gonna explain being in here?"

"Won't have to; I took care of that. I gave Jane my necklace to wear when she realized that too." Freddie looked at her friend doubtfully. "Dad gave me that necklace when I was little, said he got it from Neverland and that it had been enchanted by the fairies to protect its wearer from all magic; and I'm hoping that means locator spells. I'll get it back when she decides to go home."

"If she decides," Freddie told Harriet as she sat down on the wall next to the bed. "You should've seen it Harriet; Adam was so pissed he looked like he was going to explode. I don't think even _our_ Dads have yelled at us like that. I actually felt sorry for Jane."

"Like I said, the poor little thing," Harriet said in concern as she turned to look at her sleeping friend. "Look, there's really nothing we can do right now and I don't think Jane's going to wake for a while, so…," she trailed off, cocking her head toward the door, indicating what she'd like Freddie to do.

"What's with you?" Freddie asked. Harriet just looked back at her, not knowing what she meant. "Ever since you met Fairy Goddaughter over there, you've been acting like an over protective big sister."

"Oh sod off, you're just mad because now I don't have to sit on my thumbs waiting around for you to have some free time to hang out with me. And if I want to be protective of my new friend, what bloody business is it of yours?"

" _Friend_? You've known the girl like a week. Hell, she doesn't even know that you're a villain kid. Have you told her who your father is?" Freddie asked, practically throwing the question at Harriet. "Just imaging what 'the poor little thing' would think of you once she finds out you're the daughter of one of the blood thirstiest pirates to ever live, a man who's made an enemy of pretty much all fairy kind. I'm thinking your little half-fairy friend will run screaming in the other direction."

Harriet looked at Freddie like she wanted to smack her. Her cheeks became hot and she swallowed hard to hold back her instinct to yell at her. "You need to leave, we'll talk tomorrow," she whispered through almost gritted teeth.

"Ta-ta," Freddie smiled with a mocked curtsy and walked out the door.

Harriet locked the door and moved a large box in front of it for security. She then walked back over and knelt next to Jane, checking to see if she was really still asleep and not just pretending after accidentally being awakened. When she was sure that Jane was still out, she went back to her place by the window. She picked up her book and began reading again.

After nearly half a page she looked over the book's top edge and once again gazed over at Jane, who looked so small and harmless as she slept. Putting the book down, she got up and went over and knelt by the bed and reached under it. As quietly she could, she dragged out the cutlass she kept hidden; the one her father had given her, the one she'd been fortunate enough to have on her when that genie's power brought her here along with Freddie. She sat back down, book once again in her hands, this time however, with the sword right next to her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 12 – Girl Talk**

The mood in Mal and Evie's room was palpable to say the least. Mal and Evie were on their beds, while Freddie sat on the floor at the foot of Mal's bed and Audrey sat at their desk. No one had spoken since they'd been brought back from the palace earlier in the night. At first the girls had been escorted to their respective rooms, but once the guards left, Freddie and Audrey made their way over to Mal and Evie's. Freddie left for a about an hour, saying that she needed to go do something, eventually she made her way back, this time visibly angered. Audrey just checked her phone constantly. The other three assumed that she was checking her social media accounts, but she was actually checking to see if anyone had seen Jane. She'd never admit it out loud, but she was a little fond of Jane, and had sent out messages to as many people as she could; nothing to specific, just asking that if they spotted her, to get back to her with where she was, and most importantly, to not let Jane know that they were telling her.

Evie was trying to read to take her mind off the situation and occupy herself against the quiet. Freddie was going over the events of the day in her mind, trying to process the magnitude of what had happened. And Mal…Mal was sitting up against her headboard, her knees drawn up to support her sketchpad. At first she was just letting the pencil glide over the page but, before she knew what she was doing, she realized that she'd spent the past few minutes drawing the face of the man they'd seen earlier in the day – Diablo, or rather Dagon as everyone seem to be referring to him now.

"Is someone going to say something?" Audrey blurted out, finally breaking the silence.

"You just did," Mal answered her.

"You don't have to be a smart ass," Audrey fired back.

"I wasn't, why don't you try and –" Mal responded, then stopped, not wanting to fight. "You know what, I'm sorry," she finished.

Audrey just looked at Mal like she'd spoken in tongues. In fact, both Evie and Freddie looked at her like she'd suddenly lost her mind. "Did you just apologize?" Audrey asked.

"Well that's when you know when things have gone to crap," Freddie joked.

"What the hell happened out there Freddie?" Evie blurted out, catching the group off guard. Freddie looked up with an expression of feigned innocence and a coquettish smile. "Don't give me that look, you were with Jane when we found you guys."

"You heard Jane."

"We heard Jane's version," Mal said. "The one where she took all the blame."

"Well she did most of the work," Freddie answered nonchalantly.

Surprisingly, Mal and Audrey shared a look between each themselves. Maybe it was because Mal knew that Freddie was capable of this, and deep down, she wasn't entirely shocked that Freddie was involved in something like this. Audrey, well, Audrey just didn't trust Freddie at all. For her part, Evie just continued to stare at Freddie, having the same reservations as Mal when Ben suggested bringing her to Auradon.

"Jane might have done the heavy lifting because of her powers," Mal told her, "but she had help."

"Jane came to me for help when Diablo started bringing her stuff. Even she could tell that together they meant something. I asked her to get me a spell book, but apparently the Fairy Goddaughter can't even steal to help herself. Instead she cons you two into leaving her alone in here, and she _copies_ down spells. Even I was surprised when she actually copied the right spell."

That girl really is smarter than she looks, Mal said to herself.

"Did you ever consider that maybe you should have told her no?" Evie scolded.

"I did, at first, but I was convinced."

"Jane's not that convincing," Audrey told her. "She's way too meek."

"Not when she wants something," Freddie fired back calmly. "That girl was adamant that she wanted to do this. She didn't want to go to you Mal, which I told her to do too, so I figured better that she have me helping her, than do this alone and have it blow up in her face."

"And this doesn't qualify as blown up?" Audrey said.

"We seem to be alive and well."

"For now," Mal said. "Diablo gave me nightmares as a bird, now that he's an actual human now, well…"

The other girls watched Mal shiver in fear.

"How bad could this really get?" Freddie asked.

"Famous last words," Mal said in a calm, stoic voice that belied her true dread.

No else said anything.

 **Part 13 – Harboring a Fugitive**

After the commotion on the school grounds, all of Auradon was on high alert. All roads were being checked, every border was covered in guards, and by now his description had been broadcast across all corners of the kingdom. Dagon knew that trying to stay alive at this very moment meant finding a place to hide. He just hoped that while they told everyone to be on the lookout for a six-foot man with dark hair and blue eyes, that they left off the notation saying that they should also be on the alert for a black raven since, now that the spell that Fairy Godmother had used to permanently keep him in bird form was broken, he had the ability to change back and forth at will.

It took couple of hours, with a few breaks for rest and food, for Dagon to reach the area around Bald Mountain. It was place few ventured. Even those who lived around it steered clear of the mountain itself for fear of Chernabog coming to life and devouring them. He knew that was impossible since Chernobog was imprisoned back on the Isle…inside a magic urn, that had a barrier around it, and was buried deep inside a cave, in the area of nowhere, under Maleficent's castle. He was never getting out.

There was however, one castle that stood nearby. It was large as far as Auradonian standards went, the third largest in the kingdom after King Ben's and Cinderella's, respectively. The white marble looked dull in the early evening compared to the normal shine it gave off during the day, but it still looked magnificent against the mountainous backdrop. Under regular circumstances, most of the lights in the windows in the castle would be on, but with the threat he was causing, they were off, with all but a skeleton crew's worth of staff probably being told to go home and be with their families. With only the royal family and so few staff in the building, that single light left on in the northern most tower was like a beacon calling to Dagon.

He flapped his wings, musing at the amazing feeling of the moist air coming off the river that ran under the castle, and propelled himself toward that light. He flapped again, this time catching an updraft of air that lifted him closer to it. Soon, after those hours and miles, Dagon entered the open window. He perched himself on the window sill, looking round, making sure the room was empty. Once he was certain, recited the spell in his head and immediately he began another transformation from bird to man, albeit a far less painful one.

He climbed down from the window, his worn out boots making a muted thud as he did his best to make no sound. The room was moderately large, but by no means the kind that a guest of the crown would be treated to, most likely to make sure that no one would look in it. It was practically Spartan; a bed in the center, bedside table, lamp, and a desk. There was no television, but a cellphone, laptop and tablet sat on top of the desk along with a small stack of files.

He walked over to the table and looked at the devices. He then grabbed the top file and opened it. Inside was a note attached to the top page.

 _Dagon,_

 _If you're reading this, then you've made it off the Isle and have somehow become human again. I'm glad that you've decided to come here first; this room has been waiting for you for a long time. Take a day, rest yourself, then look into all this. I know the phone, laptop and tablet (yes, that what they're called) might be different from the devices you were used to, but you've always been smarter than you look, I know you'll figure out how to use them._

 _There's clothes in the closet, as well as some non-perishable food for the night. Turn the picture on the outside of the door over and someone will start leaving fresh meals for you until you turn it back over to let them know you're out. If you need anything, attach a note to the door, I'll make sure you get it.._

 _It's good to have you have you back. I never gave up hope that you'd return._

Dagon smiled as he read the note. I've always liked that girl, he thought as he went to the closet and took in the sight of the suits and shoes and aforementioned food. He turned back and looked at the desk, and then looked at the bed. "What the hell, I've already waited sixteen years, one more night won't hurt," he said to himself.

 **Part 14 – The Wizard**

It was well after nightfall when Fairy Godmother heard the knocking on her door.

"Jane!" she practically shouted as she threw open the door. Her heart sank as she saw that it wasn't her daughter. At her door stood a man that was almost as tall as King Beast's six-foot-three, with a lanky yet lean build and short brownish-blonde hair and soft, coffee brown eyes. The sight of Joshua Merlin, son of the legendary Merlin himself, at a woman's door was usually met with an appreciative smile and a fluttering heart. But Fairy Godmother only felt herself become more depressed.

"I'm sorry I'm not her," he said gently. He next wrapped his arms around her in a hug when she started to cry. "It's okay let it out," he consoled her as he just let her cry.

After a moment she finally allowed him inside and he took her to the couch. "I'm sorry about that," Fairy Godmother said as she wiped her nose with the handkerchief he gave her.

"It's alright, it's to be expected," he told her. "Is there any news on Jane?"

She shook her head. "No one's seen her, and my locator spells can't seem to pin her down anywhere. And none of her friends have seen her, and she hasn't called me," Fairy Godmother began to cry again as she ranted on about not having a single clue to her daughter's whereabouts. "And I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't find her, and Belle and Adam insisted I stay here in case she comes back, but I feel like I should be out there looking, now more than ever since Dagon's back."

"No, you're better off here. If she comes back, you should be here to see that she's safe," Joshua said as he sat her down on her couch. He knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. "I'm sure King Ben has everybody he can muster to look for her. Her friends are no doubt helping; they'll find her. And despite who her father is, if she inherited even half his intelligence and resourcefulness, she's going to be fine. She's probably somewhere she feels safe, somewhere that only she knows in case she ever wanted to be alone, until she thinks it's okay to come back. Am I right?"

Fairy Godmother nodded. She sobbed a few more times, struggling to regain some composure. Once she was sure she could keep herself from crying for a few minutes she cleared her throat and dabbed at her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude, can I get you anything?"

"Coffee," he said. "But I'll get it, you stay here" he added as he stood up and made his way over to the kitchen. Despite his instruction, Fairy Godmother followed him over to her kitchen and took a seat at the table. As she watched make his way effortlessly around the cabinets and drawers she was reminded just how often he used to come over since he remembered where everything was.

"How are you handling the news of Dagon's return?" Fairy Godmother asked as he readied the cream and sugar.

A small clink was heard that she assumed was Joshua accidentally dropping the spoon. She also saw him tense up, his shoulders squaring and she could swear she heard a hard swallow. "I'll admit, it wasn't the most welcome news," he answered, his back still towards Fairy Godmother. "But, I'm sure everything's being done to locate _him_ as well. I'll just keep myself clear of it all," he continued as he finally turned around. He leaned back against the counter and crossed his feet in front of him.

"That's quite the surprise considering he might actually be targeting you," Fairy Godmother told him. "Especially when you consider that murdering your brother is what got him sent back to the Isle."

"Like I said, I'm going to steer clear. However, if he does come after me, he'll have to get through Camelot's defenses first."

"And if does – which I needn't remind you, he's completely capable of doing."

Joshua held out his right hand and in his palm erupted in a green flame. "Then let's hope there's enough left to tur


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: when I posted the last chapter, realized that part of the last line got cutoff. I apologize for this. So, while I upload the latest part of the story, I'm going to include the final few paragraphs of the last posting that will include the complete entry. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

* * *

 _ **From last chapter, Part 14 - The Wizard**_

"How are you handling the news of Dagon's return?" Fairy Godmother asked as he readied the cream and sugar.

A small clink was heard that she assumed was Joshua accidentally dropping the spoon. She also saw him tense up, his shoulders squaring and she could swear she heard a hard swallow. "I'll admit, it wasn't the most welcome news," he answered, his back still towards Fairy Godmother. "But, I'm sure everything's being done to locate _him_ as well. I'll just keep myself clear of it all," he continued as he finally turned around. He leaned back against the counter and crossed his feet in front of him.

"That's quite the surprise considering he might actually be targeting you," Fairy Godmother told him. "Especially when you consider that murdering your brother is what got him sent back to the Isle."

"Like I said, I'm going to steer clear. However, if he does come after me, he'll have to get through Camelot's defenses first."

"And if does – which I needn't remind you, he's completely capable of doing."

Joshua held out his right hand and in his palm erupted in a green flame. "Then let's hope there's enough left to turn over to the authorities to send back to the Isle one more time."

* * *

 **Part 15 – Plans for a New Day**

When Jane woke up she looked around, confused by her surroundings. She began to worry until, as her memory caught up with her awakened brain, she remembered that she hadn't gone back to her dorm room after what happened at the palace. She used a spell to send her to wherever Harriet was and was surprised to learn that Harriet hadn't been lying when she said she was currently living under the clock tower.

She looked around again and saw Harriet curled up on the floor, sleeping soundly, using her coat as a makeshift pillow. She felt bad as she realized that she'd forced Harriet out of her bed for however long she'd been asleep. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she nudged the sleeping pirate with her foot. "Harriet," she whispered. There was no movement. She nudged her again and called her name again, a little louder this time, and Harriet groaned and turned in her sleep.

"Harriet, wake up," she finally shouted causing Harriet to bolt upright, her eyes wide in shock and her hand to grip her sword instinctually.

"What the bloody hell, Jane?" Harriet shouted as she frantically looked around, checking for any kind of threat.

"Sorry, I was just trying to wake you to see what time it is," Jane apologized as she scooted back on the bed until she was against the wall. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them.

Harriet leaned back and unfurled her coat. She went through one of pockets and pulled out a pocket watch, flipped open its cover and checked. "Eleven-twenty."

Jane started doing the math in her head and her head shot off her knees and her eyes widened. "I was asleep for eighteen hours?" she asked in disbelief.

"Shocked the hell out of me too," Harriet nodded. "And not that I haven't enjoyed the company for once, but are you planning on calling your mother?" Jane rested her head back on her knees and shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because I'm afraid," she whimpered.

"Well you did run away, so it's understandable," Harriet told her, causing Jane to look at her with a gaze that called into question that entire statement. "Don't look at me like that, I ran away too, technically, which is why I understand. But you're mom seems nice from what I've heard of her. Once she gets over the whole you disappearing for almost a day she'll be happy to have you back."

"You think so?"

Harriet nodded. "From what Freddie told me, old king beasty was the one who roared at you."

"Freddie was here?"

Harriet nodded again. "Came by last night to tell me what happened. She was quite surprised to find you here. I was more surprised to find out that you let her, let _you_ take all the blame. I told you to be careful didn't I?"

"Can we not have _that_ conversation now? I'm gonna get that enough from my Mom, who yes, I am planning to call," she said as she crawled over and reached for her purse under the bed. She fished out her phone and tapped the screen, followed by a few more taps and a groan of defeat before she threw it down next to her. "Damn battery's dead. You don't happen to have a phone with you do you?"

"Sure, in my other coat. I'll get it from the closet," Harriet answered sarcastically.

"You don't have to get grouchy."

"Sorry, I'm just a little cranky since someone yelled at me to wake me up…and I'm hungry."

"What do you do for food?"

"I usually sneak into the dining hall and wait for someone to drop something or leave something unattended that I can steal. Or Freddie brings me stuff."

"That sounds horrible," Jane said.

Harriet just shrugged her shoulders and lay back down. "Unless you have a better idea, that's the options."

"I'll buy you something…," Jane began.

"Deal," Harriet said the statement getting her immediate attention and causing her to sit up.

"…as long as you come with me when I call my mother."

"I don't need to eat that much," Harriet backpedaled and falling backwards on the floor. She winced in pain when the back of her head hit harder than she intended it to.

"Come on, please," Jane almost whined, "If you're there, my mother probably won't yell right away," she finished.

"If I'm there, your mother's gonna _know_ I'm here, and in case you need reminding, I'm _not_ supposed to be here. Her seeing me is a one-way ticket back to the Is…home, a one-way ticket home," Harriet argued.

"Just go with me, when she shows, you stand far enough away so it doesn't look like you're with me, but close enough that she doesn't yell, until she gets me home. That work for you?"

Harriet looked up at Jane from the floor and bit her lip as she thought. Part of her wanted to just let Jane just handle her own problems, but another part wanted to help. Maybe it was once again the fact that Jane had been so completely nice to her, or maybe it was the flattering thought that when she got in trouble, Jane thought enough of her to come here; so against her better instincts… "Fine, I'll tag along. But I pick where we eat then."

Jane nodded in relief.

* * *

Dagon stood in front of the mirror that hung on the wall, leisurely fixing his black and gray tie over the black shirt he's been given. Once it was straight he went back to the desk where he had some files laid out next to the tablet and the meal he'd found outside his door.

He'd woken up as the sun came up and got to work immediately. He grew inpatient as he "played around" with the devices he'd been left to just get a working knowledge of them before he could even get to work on researching. But like his benefactor said in her note, he was smart, and eventually he got the hang of them, and was able to start working. After a few hours, he'd gotten the information he needed and felt it was time to take things forward.

"But first, I need a few things," he said to himself as he grabbed the suit jacket from the bed. He put in on as he strode toward the door of his room and opened to look out into the hallway. He saw that it was clear and grabbed note off the desk and tacked it to the outside of the door. After locking the door, he made his way over to the window and climbed onto the sill. He looked out into the horizon, seeing the woods surrounding the castle stretching for miles. He took in a breath and then jumped out, turning back into a raven after freefalling about fifty feet. As he made his way back toward Auradon he squawked, the sound barely echoing in the air.

 **Part 16 – Recon and Calls Home**

"My lord this is good," Harriet said as she finished taking a drink of her smoothie. Before Jane could say anything back Harriet began taking another drink, the sound of slurping coming from her straw as she finished the last drops causing Jane to giggle.

"I'll bet, you polished off three of them with your pancakes. I'm guessing you like pineapples?"

"Apparently," Harriet answers as she throws the empty cup into a nearby trashcan. "So where is it that you'll be calling your Mom from?" she asked as she let the young fairy lead her around.

"There," Jane pointed. Harriet looked in the direction Jane indicated and took in a deep breath rather than start complaining. "What now?" Jane sighed.

"A museum? You're going to turn yourself in…at a museum?"

"It's a public place. There's people around. _You_ can fade into the background – maybe get a little history lesson – and most importantly, my mother will have to keep her voice down."

"History lesson?" Harriet said with a raised eyebrow.

"You had me check out all those pirate books. While we wait for my Mom to get here, we can check out the villain's section and look around."

Harriet looked at Jane like she was talking gibberish. This plan had disaster written all over it, she thought. It's not that she felt that Jane's assumption about trying to keep her mother quiet were wrong, but if the girl was as afraid of her mother as she let on, then no amount of people or rules saying she needed to be quiet would work. But, she reasoned, it's a way to get out and about for the day instead of being cooped up.

It didn't hurt that Jane had once again conjured them up some clothes, although Harriet insisted that Jane choose something less conspicuous than her typical blue dress. Deciding to listen to her friend, Jane had let Harriet decide what to wear so as to not be recognized until she called her mother. That was the explanation for why the normally conservative, covered-up, prim and proper Fairy Goddaughter was decked out in a half shirt, showing more of her stomach than Jane had ever shown in her life, a pair of leather pants, and combat boots with her hair tied into a ponytail and large sunglasses covering her eyes. Her dread was compounded now by the fact that she was certain that her mother would completely freak over the outfit that she had on.

"Who know, maybe we'll even find me something that doesn't make me look like a…what do you call a girl who's trying way too hard to be sexy?" Jane asked as she looked down at herself.

" _Me_? I call her a skank. _You_? You'd probably call her a harlot, or a tramp, or some other less impactful word since you'd still try to be nice. But you shouldn't worry, you do not look like a skank. I think you pull it off smashingly," Harriet smiled, hoping to diffuse her friend's ire.

"This," Jane said as she moved her hand up and down, indicating her outfit, "is why I put you in your outfit, you know that right, Harry?"

"And you know what, Janey, I think it's growing on me," Harriet smiled, though it was clear, to both of them, that she was lying. After Harriet had decided on Jane's outfit, and then adamantly refused to let her change it, Jane got a small amount of revenge when she conjured up Harriet's outfit; a pair of tweed pants that were clearly high waters, a white button down shirt buttoned nearly to the top and matching knit sweater and a pair of loafers. Harriet's smile faded and doing her best to not shout too loudly said, "I look like an old librarian!"

"I think you pull it off smashingly," Jane mocked in a British accent, earning herself a small smile from Harriet who was mildly impressed by her friend's sudden attitude.

"We should stop standing here and arguing like a couple of school girls and get inside so you can call your Mom," Harriet suggested.

Jane breathed in deeply and then let out a hard sigh. "I guess."

Both girls began their walk into the museum, Jane dragging her feet a little until Harriet began to pull her a little faster.

* * *

Dagon was perched on a tree branch, looking at the Auradon Museum of History. Like on any other day, people were coming in and out, not enough to be considered packed or crowded, but just enough that the building wouldn't be empty. As much as he would've preferred empty, he'd take what he could get since he knew that going up against the opponent he had in his sights on would be suicide without every advantage he could assemble. He also noticed that the normally undefended building suddenly had a small array of guards.

He'd counted two in the back entrance during his fly over, along with two roaming the grounds. There were two more on the main entrance, and all of them were armed with standard issue rifles and what looked like swords. They weren't leaving anything to chance since news of his return. Since it didn't seem like the civilians were acting any different, well, other than noticing the extra security, he wagered that it hadn't been broadcast that he was back. They don't want to spook the public, he thought.

With a soundless effort this time, he flew down from the branch and landed on the ground. As he kept his gaze on the museum, he changed himself back into a man, keeping a crouched stance to remain unnoticed for the time being.

"Incognito keeps things low key. Fast and direct, well that just causes a mess…which are easier to get lost in," he said to himself. After thinking about options for a bit, he let out a breath and… "Good thing I like getting a little dirty."

* * *

Fairy Godmother was asleep on her couch after having finally passed out from exhaustion. A cup of cold coffee sat on the table in front of her next to her phone. She spent most of the night trying spell after spell to locate Jane until finally her body and mind just gave out. She'd have remained asleep if her phone hadn't started ringing, forcing her awake.

As if she'd never been asleep at all, she bolted upright, shaking the sleep from her and almost immediately grabbed her phone. Without even checking the screen to see who it was she swiped the screen and pulled the device to her ear.

"Jane?" she almost screamed into the phone.

"M-Mom," she came Jane's voice from the other end.

"Oh thank goodness," Fairy Godmother said as she closed her eyes and breathed the first sigh of relief in almost a day. "Jane, are you okay? You're not hurt?"

"No, I'm okay," she answered. "I-I'm sorry I ran away. Can I come home?" she asked sheepishly, her voice soft and a little scared.

Fairy Godmother teared up, both relived that her daughter was telling her she was okay, and now overjoyed that she'd soon have her home…and safe. "Of course, where are you?"

"The museum."

"Stay there, I'm on my way to get you, okay sweetie?"

"Okay, Mom," Jane said before hanging up.

As soon as she was off the phone, she was back on it. She muttering to herself for the phone to start ringing and then for who she was calling to pick up, until finally, "Belle? Jane just called…un-huh…she's at the museum…yes, please meet me there…thank you," she said as she moved throughout the room until she found her keys. As soon as she hung up, she was out the door and on her way to get her daughter back.

 **Part 17 – A Learning Experience**

The Hall of Villains was bigger than Harriet thought it would be. Then again, with the amount of villains back home, this place ought to be pretty expansive, she thought. There were exhibits on the parents of Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos, as well everyone else on the Isle. She casually read the plaques containing the stories of Lady Tremain, Anastasia and Drizella, Gaston, who she had to admit was quite the looker in his younger years. So that's where the Trois and Junior got their looks, she mused. She also saw areas dedicated to Madame Mim, Mother Goethel, Prince Hans, and Hades before finally coming the exhibit she was both nervous and excited to see.

Her father's.

"There he is," Jane said, "Captain Hook, himself."

Harriet stared at the statue, seeing for the first time, a face to face to image of her father. Sure she'd seen pictures, but this was a full scale representation of what he'd looked like in his heyday. She could see that he was a thin man with long curly, black shoulder-length hair that draped over his shoulders, a thin black mustache that angled upward sharply, and a large chin. His captain's apparel was much more fanciful; a frilly white cravat underneath a crimson coat with gold lining and crimson cuffs. Each of these cuffs sported two gold cufflinks. She realized that it had been tailored eventually because it was the same coat she wore now. Now she understood why it looked like it'd been taken in in some places – he had personalized it to fit her. She almost laughed as she realized that he still had the large crimson hat that matched the coat, still complete with a huge lavender feather stuck in it.

"He was thinner back then," Harriet said without thinking.

"Hmm?" Jane asked.

"Nothing," Harriet responded with a small shake of her head. "I was just wondering if he still looked like that," she remarked. It was strange not being able to tell that she knew that the fancifully dressed representation in front of her was a far cry from the current Captain Hook. The years hadn't been entirely kind to him, but they weren't bad either. His hair was now just above his collar and more salt and peppered than the shining black it once was. And if she had to admit it, it was more salt than pepper, a side effect of the stress she caused growing up since she was a rambunctious child, and that was her being generous. The mustache had thickened out, and at times he shaved it down to just a few days stubble to match the beard.

"I wonder if he's let himself go," Jane commented, eliciting a look from Harriet. "What? Some friends of mine are from the Isle, they told me that most of the villains there have let themselves go."

Harriet wanted to say something in defense of her father, but she had to admit that her father wasn't as thin as the statue in front of her. He was by no means fat, but he would certainly never be as rail thin as he was back before she was born.

"Is there anything specific you want to know about him?"

" _You're_ going to lecture me about Captain Hook?"

"Why not? Pretty much every fairy in the world is an expert on him. Mom says us fairies need to know our mortal enemy," she explained nonchalantly. Luckily for Harriet, Jane didn't catch the way her face flinched when she called her father a mortal enemy. What Jane did catch was how quiet Harriet became. "You alright Harry?"

Harriet nodded and was about to speak when a voice came over the PA system.

"Will a…Jane please report to the information desk, your mother is here to pick you up."

Saved by the Fairy Godmother, Harriet thought. "Wow, she's here faster than I thought she'd be," Jane said absently, though Harriet could tell that Jane was nervous. The two girls looked at each other, Harriet waiting for Jane to begin moving, and Jane balancing back and forth on her heels, suddenly finding herself in no hurry to go.

"Well?" Harriet asked. "Janey?"

"She's gonna be so mad," Jane whimpered.

"I think she's got every right to be," Harriet told her. "Then again, better mad now, that way she can get over it. Now come on," Harriet tried to make her feel better, but still knowing it was best if she grabbed her by the arm and practically pulled her in the direction of the stairs leading down to the first floor.

* * *

The guards at the door were watching the passersby, not really paying attention. It wasn't that they didn't care about the heightened sense of alert that they were supposed to be on, they just assumed that of all the places for this villain to strike, a museum seemed like the least likely location. So they watched the three teens who were walking by trying to find something to do on a rather boring Saturday. They scanned over the mother pushing a stroller while trying to make sure that her four year-old kept up. They glanced over the people who passed them who chose to make use of historical items inside.

They even paid almost no attention to the man in the black suit who was walking up the path to the museum's steps and right to them.

"Morning, gentleman," Dagon greeted almost cheerfully. The guards nodded their heads. Dagon smiled. "It's my first time in Auradon proper and a friend of mine said I absolutely had to visit the Museum of History. This is it right?"

"Yes, sir," one of the guards answered while the other simply nodded.

"I'm actually surprised it's open, because you know, I heard there was a _villain_ on the loose."

"Nothing to worry about, sir," the other guard said.

"I'll bet, after all, we have guys like you to keep us safe, right?" he asked, laughing at the end. The guards nodded, smiling lightly. "I mean after all, you guys would know what he looks like, that way if you saw him, you could stop him?"

"Of course."

My what a gullible breed, Dagon thought as he looked the two guards over. One was tall and lanky looking, so thin in fact that Dagon really thought he could get blown over by a strong breeze. The other was bulkier, but judging by the small double chin that was coming in, he wasn't in the shape he should be in. Someone like Dagon knew that excess heft like that usually meant he'd be slower in a fight.

"Why I bet you two would know exactly what to do if he walked up and stood right in front of you?"

"We'd show him that he should've on the Isle."

Both guards chuckled and even Dagon joined in, enjoying their confidence, misguided as it was. "But one thing is puzzling me, and, I'm sure you two could put my mind at ease," he started. Both guards nodded. "I'm kind of curious as to why I haven't heard anything about him on the news or anything? Don't the people know he's out, and here?"

"No sir," the bulkier guard answered. "The king wants to avoid a panic, so knowledge of his presence is restricted to the military and the royal guards. As far as the public's concerned, they…they don't know. S-so…how do you…," he trailed off, turning to face his colleague. They looked at each other, realizing who they've been conversing with.

They looked back toward Dagon, and before they could react, Dagon was already moving. He started with the larger of the two, shoving two fingers into the soft hollow tissue at the base of his throat, immediately making it hard for the large man to breathe. He tried to suck in air, but found himself only gasping.

The thinner guard tried to mount an offense, but Dagon had already zeroed in on him. He landed a hard right cross on the guard's chin, rocking the lanky man off balance. As he tried to shake off the hit, he felt a sharp pain in his gut as Dagon's foot made contact, and then finally, he felt Dagon grab him by the back of his uniform and the hair on the back of his head. In a quick flurry, Dagon swung the guard around, and back toward the building, slamming his unprotected skull against the wall. As he felt the guard go limp he once more threw the guard around, this time off the platform they were on and over onto the ground, the large hedges obscuring him from being seen down there.

With one guard disposed of, Dagon turned his attention back to the larger guard, who had turned an almost impossible shade of red, though it was becoming blotchy as he was finally able to catch his breath. However, Dagon had no intention of letting him stay awake. He hit the guard with a flurry of punches to his face and stomach until the guard was hunched over, and then he grabbed him in a headlock, locking his forearm into place just under the guard's windpipe and began pulling upward. The guard struggled but was too stunned and weak from the melee attack and before he could even think about fighting back, was seeing everything become dark before finally passing out.

Once Dagon felt him become limp as well, he shift the guard's body until, with quite the struggle due to the guard's weight, finally he had him in a fireman's and walked him over to the other side of the platform and dumped him over, letting the hedges on that side hide him like his comrade was being hidden on the other.

"Now, time for some shopping," he smiled and walked into the museum.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 18 – Reclaiming Past Possessions**

Jane walked up to the information desk, her stomach in knots, and a little cold. How do girls like Audrey and Evie wear stuff like this, she thought. She could hear Harriet's footsteps behind her, letting Jane know that she was still there. As she got closer she could see that her mother wasn't alone, Belle was with her. Oh great, she thought, another person to see me dressed like a… _skank_. The closer she got, the more nervous she became. Visions flashed in her imagination of her mother yelling at her, of her screaming until her voice was hoarse or just plain gone.

Finally, when she was within reach of them, she let out a sigh, took a deep breath and…

"Mom," Jane said softly.

Fairy Godmother and Belle turned in the direction of Jane's voice. "Jane, thank goodness you're; oh my God what are you wearing?" Fairy Godmother asked, completely shocked at the sight of her daughter.

"Oh dear," said Belle at the same time, covering her mouth in shock.

"Um..."

"Why are you dressed like that?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"I figured it was a good disguise until I was ready to come home," Jane answered sheepishly.

Jane stayed quiet, expecting her mother to begin yelling. She was caught off guard when she felt her mother's arms wrap themselves around her, squeezing her hard until breathing became difficult. Fairy Godmother didn't let up until she felt Jane start tapping her. "Can't breathe," she croaked.

Fairy Godmother let Jane out of her grasp and began looking her over. Jane swatted at her mother's hands as she felt her face being moved up and down and side to side. Fairy Godmother then put her hands on Jane's shoulders and started turning her daughter this way and that, looking for cuts, scrapes, and bruises, mentally laughing at the fact that it was made easier by Jane's top.

"M-mom," Jane protested as her mother kept inspecting. "I'm okay."

Once more Fairy Godmother wrapped Jane in a hug. She let Jane go and held her at arm's length by her shoulders. "Don't you ever scare me like that again. I was worried sick."

"I'm sorry. I just..."

"Where were you?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"W-with a friend."

Belle and Fairy Godmother looked at each other. "We checked with all your friends," Belle informed her, "none of them had seen you."

Jane immediately became scared. She expected to be asked where she was. Now she knew she should've had a better explanation that just being with a friend. She was about to try to find some way to explain off being at Harriet's when she spotted something at the stairs behind Belle and her mother near the entrance.

"Jane, what friend were you with?" Fairy Godmother asked when Jane remained quiet. She, and Belle, became concerned when Jane's eyes and mouth widened in fear. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

Jane raised her arm, and with a trembling hand, pointed at the stairs. Belle and Fairy Godmother turned to look and became just as shocked. Climbing the stairs was the now most wanted man in Auradon.

"Stay with Jane," Fairy Godmother told Belle as she ran off in the opposite direction, climbing the stairs that would lead her into the bank entrance of the Hall of Heroes.

While Fairy Godmother left, Belle immediately got on her phone and began dialing the palace. "Adam," she almost shouted once her husband finally picked up. "Adam, he's here, at the museum...Dagon!"

* * *

Dagon walked up to the statue of Captain Hook. He looked at the scowl on its face and couldn't help but smile.

"Hello James," he said as he held his right hand up towards the statue. "Whole made hollow, sharp made dull, make deadly once more, that held by the man from Skull."

Dagon watched as the sword on Hook's hip began to glow from its grip and guard down to the scabbard. He smiled, not a full smile, just a small curving of his lips as he reached over and grabbed the sword grip. With familiar ease, he pulled the sword from the scabbard, revealing a very real cutlass sword. He held it up, letting the light dance off it while he got reacquainted with its weight.

"Like we never parted," he reminisced before magically making the sword disappear in a puff of smoke. "One down, one to go," he remarked as he walked off.

* * *

Fairy Godmother ran up the stairs, her heart beating rapidly as she approached the exhibit hall she was looking for. Her thoughts were on hoping that she could reach it in time before Dagon came for whatever it was he was looking for. She made it to the top of the stairs on the second floor landing and ran into the rotunda and looked at the object she was hoping would never be used in a situation like this again.

* * *

Dagon walked the Hall of Villains, counting the images of old acquaintances. Doctor Facilier. Governor Ratcliffe. Claude Frollo. Ursula. Shan Yu. Mother Gothel. Clayton. Hans. Villain after villain. So many even Dagon was amazed.

For a people who try to act like Evil doesn't exist, Auradon does like its reminders, he thought. He ticked by a number more before finally arriving at his intended destination.

"Gaston."

As Dagon stared at Gaston's effigy, he had an overwhelming urge to smack the snug look on his face clean off. I'll just have to settle for taking your hands, you pompous asshat, he thought as he raised his sword hand.

"Hello, sir, is there anything I can help you with?" came a female voice from behind him.

He turned and saw a short woman with graying brown hair and a figure that could best be described as pleasantly plump. She had a soft, gentle smile on her round face. Her hands were professionally clasped in front of her and she looked genuinely happy to be doing her job. It almost made Dagon reconsider his actions - almost.

"No ma'am," he said with a charming smile, "I found just what was I looking for."

He turned back toward the statue and re-raised his hand. His sword materialized in his hand bringing a gasp from the museum attendant behind him. He crossed the sword over his chest so that his right hand was by his left shoulder, took aim and brought it down, cutting off the left hand of the statue at the wrist, just above his glove.

"What are you doing?" shouts the attendant.

Without answering, Dagon swipes again, this time taking off the statue's right hand, also, just above the glove. He dissipates the sword and kneels down. He proceeds to pick up one hand and begins to force the yellow glove off of it, and then repeats the actions with the other hand. While he's doing that, the attendant runs over to a panel on the wall, punches in a code and sets off an alarm that sounds throughout the entire building.

"Who are you?" she shouts at him.

He turned toward her and, while finishing putting the gloves on, smiled. "I'm just a man, trying to set things right," he told her before looking down at the gloves. "Revertere ad tenebras."

The attendant watched as the gloves turned from bright yellow to black, the darker color looking as if it was bleeding over the leather. As he flexed his hands in them, making his fingers comfortable by stretching them out and curling them into fists, the gloves gave off a dull white glow. "There, all better," he said before stretching his right hand out and pointing it in the direction of the attendant.

"Please don't," she screamed as she watched electricity spark from his fingertips and meeting just in front of his hand in an arch. She held her hands up protect herself as he flicked his wrist and a ball of energy shot off from his hand. "No!"

* * *

Fairy Godmother making her way carefully down the corridor, wand in hand, keeping an eye out for Dagon. She was going to try and use a spell to teleport herself to him when the alarm went off. "Oh my God," she gasped as she began running. She looked down a few of the corridors that split off from the main hallway, but saw nothing. When the alarm shut itself off about a minute later, she became even more concerned.

Eventually she ended up in the Hall of Villains, her eyes falling to the sight of one of the museum attendants crouched on the floor. She ran over to her and kneeled down to check her over.

She was pressing herself against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. "Are you alright?" she asked. The attendant nodded. "Where did he go?" The attendant pointed and Fairy Godmother ran after.

* * *

Dagon was making his way down the main staircase, feeling confident despite the slight distraction. He'd made it to the first floor when he came to the doors, and saw what looked like some kind of blast door had lowered as he spied the surrounding windows, they too were sealed off. For people so trusting, Auradon really stepped up the security, he thought, almost impressed.

"We had some of those improvements you always talked about made," came a voice from behind him. He turned and saw Belle standing down the hallway.

"Your Majesty," he said, his voice unusually sincere, along with a bow. "I'm sure that even as the new Queen Mother, you still have access to the codes for this," he referenced the way out. "Or at the yank to make someone open it. After all, I have things to do and can't really stay."

"You're not going anywhere," he heard from the top of the stairs. He looked up and saw Fairy Godmother standing at the landing. Her wand was raised, ready to strike, and she had a look that could only be described at infuriated.

He turned back toward Belle and pointed up at Fairy Godmother. "This is going to come as a surprise, but she was someone I had not planned for this early in my day."


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 19 – The Devil vs Auradon, Round 1**

"Well I didn't plan on having to deal with the worst villain I've ever met," Fairy Godmother said as she started descending the stairs, stopping when she was half-way down.

"Villain is such a strong word," Dagon replied to her, his eyes going back and forth between her face and her wand hand. "It's also horribly subjective. After all, you two view me as a villain."

"Which you are?" Belle said to him.

"Whereas _I_ consider myself as the only one who's seeking the actual truth, and the justice that should accompany it."

"My God you are delusional," Fairy Godmother said as she began to raise her wand.

Dagon immediately raised his hands, his left merely pointing at the Fairy Godmother in a gesture meant to stop her. But his right hand was pointed toward Belle, his fingers extended and once again, electricity arcing from them. "Uh, uh, uh," he told Fairy Godmother while shaking his finger at her. "When that nice old lady up stairs set off the alarm, I didn't hear a call for an evacuation, that means that all those people I saw when I came in here, are still here, just in hiding. We start blasting away at each other right now, and innocent people might get hurt, baby. I know how much you hate that."

Fairy Godmother looked down over the railing at Belle, the Queen Mother frozen where she stood from fear of being attacked. Damn him, she thought, as she lowered her wand until her hand was at her side.

"Thank you," he said with a polite nod. "Now, Your Highness, if you would please, I really need to go."

Belle shook her head. "No, I'm not letting you out of here."

Dagon lowered the hand pointed at her and fired a blast from his glove at her feet. "I won't ask again."

Suddenly, a fit of coughing came from out of nowhere. Dagon began scanning the room, looking for the source, and in that split second of distraction, Fairy Godmother picked her moment. She began raising her wand, already letting loose a blast of magic from its tip. The arching barrage blasted against Dagon, knocking him off his feet. As he hit the floor and began a small slide on it, Fairy Godmother ran down the stairs, firing off another blast. The second hit knocked him further back, and Fairy Godmother let loose one more. Dagon was able to put up his hands for the third, feeling the magic hit them and then drove them apart, splitting the discharge.

From his prone position, he returned fire, a discharge from his right hand first, followed immediately by one from his left as the Fairy Godmother came to the first-floor landing. She deflected the assault with the wand, sending them inadvertently down the hallway, one nearly colliding with Belle as she moved out of the way.

Dagon teleported from the floor in a gray, smoky mist, reappearing a few feet away, standing ready for a fight. "I wanted to do this in a more civilized fashion, but you wanna go Starling…then we'll go."

He proceeded to begin firing at her, his hands letting loose energy blasts like he was shooting two guns. Fairy Godmother dove back toward the stairs, using the bannister for cover, flimsy as it was. She crawled back up until she was behind the solid beam that signaled the stairs were now going to curve upstairs. Great, she thought, I just pissed him off.

As Belle ducked behind the information desk, making sure that Jane and the other girl that had moved with her were okay, she pulled out her phone.

"You're checking your phone now?" Jane asked, shrinking back into a ball every time she heard a blast of magic.

"Not checking, verifying," Belle said as looked at her screen. Not wasting another second, she dropped the device and crouched just high enough to still be behind the desk, but high enough that she could see its surface. She began to type in a code into the keypad. A few seconds later, the whirring sound of the lockdown doors opening could be heard.

"Why are you opening the doors?" Jane asked in fear.

"Because the guards are here," Harriet replied as she tapped Jane on the shoulder and showed her Belle's phone that she had picked up. Jane looked at the screen and read the text from Adam.

 _Small unit outside. Let them in_

"They should be able to hold him long enough for the rest of the troops to arrive," Belle said as she ducked back down.

Dagon noticed the doors starting to open as he deflected a blast from Fairy Godmother. He fired back with three quick blasts, the first two wide to force her to deal with them, and the third aimed more directly at her. The last blast connected, knocking her down and back toward the stairwell. He watched her head collide with the adjacent wall, the force causing her to become momentarily disoriented.

With her temporarily out of the fight, he turned toward the doors, which were almost open now, and saw a small contingent of about twelve royal guards waiting to get in. Once the doors were open, the guards flooded in. Dagon slowly sauntered closer to the middle of the corridor, the guards flanking him until he was surrounded, rifles in their hands and swords attached to their backs.

With sound of the magical fight having stopped and the sound of guard's boots now echoing, Jane and Harriet crouched up against the reception desk, their heads just high enough to peek over and look around.

"Mom," Jane gasped as she saw her mother still down at the stairs. She was about to get up and run over to her when she felt Harriet hold her back.

"Girls, get down," Belle whispered to them. She moved to grab them, only to become curious as she saw the number of guards. The next thing she knew, she was crouched right next to them, about to watch the showdown.

As the guards stood encircled around him, Dagon watched as they raised their rifles, their aim squarely on him, whether they were aiming for his head or his heart he couldn't tell. He heard the clicking of the weapons being cocked, knowing that the only thing left was to fire.

"Get on the ground and put your hands behind your head," he heard one guard order.

Dagon chuckled.

"How about, I put my hands...in the air," he offered as he did raise his hands.

"I said get on the ground," the guard repeated.

"Metal in hand, pointed in ire, too hot to hold, burns like fire," he chanted.

Before they could react, the guards felt their rifles becoming heated; the metal, and even the wood, becoming hotter and hotter until finally, with groans of pain, they had to drop the weapons. As all the rifles hit the ground, Dagon snapped his fingers and teleported them all away.

Fairy Godmother was slowly shaking off the effects of her hit to the wall. Things were still blurry, but she was able to make out the guards surrounding Dagon. She saw them pull their swords.

"No," she said, though her voice wasn't even to the level of a whisper.

The guard that ordered Dagon to get on the ground lunged at him, his sword being swung at Dagon's head. Dagon ducked and, in a flurry of speed that none of the guards had ever seen, watched as he laid in an elbow strike to the guard's ribs and then turned and punched him in the back, right on one of his kidneys. Finally, he grabbed the guard and the him toward another. As the second guard fell, two more attacked.

"Don't," Fairy Godmother actually whispered this time.

From their vantage point, Belle, Jane, and Harriet watched on in shock. The guards didn't even appear to be an obstacle for Dagon. He'd already dispatched the second pair that attacked him, and was now making short work of a fifth, while appearing to set himself up to handle the sixth.

"Bloody hell," Harriet muttered.

"Oh God, what did I do?" Jane whispered.

 **Part 20 – Big Things, Small Packages**

The Royal Guards of Auradon that served first King Adam, and now King Ben, were one of the legacies of Mulan to the kingdom. She'd spent five years training them, making sure that five years' worth of soldiers all the way from general down to infantryman knew about fighting, strategy, courage, and honor. And every soldier that passed her training was able to pass on that training to the next recruited class after them, and so on and so on. They Royal Guards of Auradon were able to handle any threat that came their way, whether it be from the Isle or, in the remotest of chances, from one of the principalities that made up The United States of Auradon itself. They were the best.

And a man who was famously known for being the Devil was dismantling them like there were children playing at being solders. And with his bare hands.

The ferocity that Dagon fought with was unknown to them. Whereas they fought to subdue, he fought to disable to the point just under decimation. They screamed as he attacked nerves, bent and broke bones, and caused pain they'd never dreamt of because they'd never needed to. War hadn't been seen in Auradon in a very long time.

As Dagon was on his final guard, holding him from behind in a choke hold, the guard struggling to keep Dagon from locking it completely in an effort to keep breathing, the trio of Belle, Jane, and Harriet watched as Dagon kicked out the guard's knee from under him, sending him to one knee, and finally locking the hold. They watched as the guard's face became a dark shade of red in mere seconds until finally he passed out. With the last of the dozen guards dealt with, Dagon released the choke hold, and threw the unconscious guard aside like he was an afterthought.

He then turned his attention to the stunned trio.

"Your Highness, Baby Bird, and…," he said while trailing off, his tone unusually calm and almost cheerful. He smiled at Harriet, a knowing look on his face as he recognized her, and clearly not just from his week stalking Jane. "And you. Does your father know you're here?"

"Leave them alone," Belle demanded.

Dagon began moving toward them, all three backing up until they hit the wall. Jane squeaked as her body made contact.

"Janey, I need my sword," Harriet said.

"W-what?" Jane stuttered.

"My sword. A sword. Something – now," Harriet implored.

"Young lady, what are you talking about?" Belle questioned.

"Janey," Harriet stressed.

"B-bibbibi, bobbidi, boo."

Harriet felt her hand suddenly become heavier, and knew that Jane had come through. She looked down and saw her cutlass in her hand, and smiled. Good form, Jane, she thought. She stepped out from behind the reception desk, and raised her sword, taking a stance, readying herself for a fight.

Dagon stopped in his tracks. "Do you really want to do this little girl?"

"En…garde," she responded.

Belle and Jane watched as Dagon made his own cutlass appear in his hand. He raised the sword so it was pointed at the sixteen-year-old girl and squared himself. Without warning, he lunged at Harriet, taking a calculated swipe at her hand. Harriet was able to block the strike, push him away, and swing at him with a strike of her own. He blocked her movement, as well as the two more quick lunges she made at him.

"Not bad," Dagon said, a small touch of appreciation in his voice. "You certainly live up to the family name."

"Daddy taught me well."

"I'm sure he did. But I should mention, I'm one of the few people who can beat him in a fight," Dagon revealed. Harriet's eyes widened, and she was almost caught unprepared for Dagon's next attack.

The two of them fought for the next few minutes, their swords clanging as their blades collided. Belle and Jane watched as Harriet held her own for most of the quarrel, matching Dagon move for move and lunge for lunge. But finally, Dagon's experience carried him on, and in a flurry that showed off his master of not just his sword, but his own fighting abilities; he'd disarmed Harriet, forcing her sword from hand and ending it flying. Harriet took one last look at Jane and, in a fit she would later describe as misplaced courage or stupidity, tried to lunge at him, only to feel the handguard land against her face, and the, there was nothing, as the young pirate was knocked out.

"Harriet," Jane shouted as she saw her friend fall to the ground.

Dagon returned his attention to Belle and Jane. Belle immediately put herself between Jane and Dagon. "You stay away," Belle demanded of him.

Dagon raised his finger at her. "I have every right to talk to her," he said, his finger pointed at Jane.

"The hell you do," they heard a voice shout. Before Dagon, or anyone could turn, they saw the lights flicker, and the next thing that anyone knew, Dagon was being hit with a lightning attack. Belle and Jane watched as the lightning poured from the hands of the Fairy Godmother in a never-ending wave. Dagon was screaming now, driven to his knees from the pain. Some of the patrons of the museum were filtering out from the secret hiding places they'd been herded into by the staff, both terrified and curious as to the sounds they were hearing. They never imagined in their wildest dreams that they'd be seeing the usually calm and gentle Fairy Godmother using her powers to essentially electrocute a man.

Belle and Jane watched in horror as Fairy Godmother seemed to double down and add more power to the strike. Dagon's screams intensified right along with the electricity, and now he was down to his hands and knees.

"Fairy Godmother, you need to stop," Belle screamed as she ran over to her friend on the stairs.

"Mom, stop it, please!" Jane yelled from the floor as she was checking on Harriet.

"You won't get near her. You won't get near any of them," Belle heard Fairy Godmother mutter as she kept up the attack. She looked at her friend's eyes, and was chilled with terror at the sight. Fairy Godmother's eyes were glowing a deep shade of purple, which Belle knew only happened in moments of deep emotional stress when using her powers. But what scared her, was the emotion behind that glow. She'd seen Fairy Godmother angry before; after all, everyone's capable of anger. But now, the only thing she saw – was pure hatred.

"You're going to kill him if you don't stop," Belle shouted.

"He deserves it," she practically growled. "For everything he put me through."

Belle knew she had to do something to stop her. To try and snap her out of it. She looked down at Jane who was watching her mother with terrified eyes. She was glued to the spot she was at, too petrified to move or speak. I can't let her kill someone in front of her daughter, she thought. So, in a moment born of desperation, she ran down the stairs and pushed Dagon out of the way. However, since the attack didn't stop, Belle was now the one screaming in agony as she felt the power of the Fairy Godmother being brought to bear.

"Mom, no!" Jane screamed at her, tears now running down her eyes.

Dagon watched as Fairy Godmother finally stopped. But as he looked up at her, her eyes still glowing, he knew she was far from done. She redirected her aim and fired again at him. This time he managed to get his hands up, blocking the hit, but only succeeding in holding it back. And as weak as he was from the previous attack, he knew he couldn't hold it for long. Despite not wanting to cause such a public display of damage, of not wanting to actively hurt anyone, he did the only spell he knew would stop this.

"L-lumbre," he shouted. Without warning, fire began shooting from his hands, pushing back against the lightning being hurled at him. As he watched both their beams struggle for dominance, he waited until his had forced hers into more of an even stalemate. As the two beams now met in the middle, he gathered up all his strength, and forced himself to rise to his feet, and pushed hard with everything he had.

Fairy Godmother felt the blowback hit her and send her flying back against the wall once again. This time, there was no temporary daze. She was fully knocked out. Dagon fell to one knee, holding himself up with his hand. His breather was temporary as he saw the flames from his attack set the wall and stairs on fire.

"Mom," Jane screamed again.

Dagon looked over at her, then back to the Fairy Godmother. The flames grew in intensity, and now smoke was starting to form. He ran over and grabbed Jane by the hand.

"Let me go," she shouted at him as she shook off his grip and started slapping away at him.

He grabbed her by the wrists and shook her as gently as he could given the situation. "Stop struggling," he ordered her. "Do you want to save your mother? Your friends?" he asked as he turned to looked at Harriet and Belle, both of whom were knocked out on the floor as well. "Do you?" he shouted when she didn't respond.

She nodded.

"Then come with me," he instructed as her pulled back toward the other end of the building, the museum's guest and staff watching on, too confused and frightened to do anything. Once they were about twenty feet from the back wall he let go. "When I was a bird and following you, I saw you do a push with a bowl of fruit. You want to learn to do it with something as big as that wall?"

"What?"

"It's the same principle, okay? You look at the wall, and shove your hand at it. The only difference here is, you have to say this spell. Are you ready?" Jane nodded once. "You have to say: blocked and held in, blocked no more, make clear my way, I want a door. Nice and simple, can you remember that?" Jane nodded again. "Okay, I'm gonna count to three, you're gonna say the spell, and when you push your hand forward, I want you to put everything you got behind it."

Jane turned toward the wall and felt Dagon put his hand on her shoulder.

"One…two…three."

"Blocked and held in, blocked no more, make clear my way, I want a door."

Jane drew back her hand and then pushed it forward. To her amazement, as well as the people watching, a massive chunk of the wall, at least two-thirds of it by Dagon's estimation practically exploded away from the building, leaving a large gaping hole. She gasped in shock, her hands covering her mouth. She turned toward Dagon. "Did we…"

"We nothing, that was all you, darling," he told her, a gigantic, ear-to-ear smile on his face.

"Me?"

"Just like your mother, a little freaking powerhouse," he complimented, trying not to laugh at the successful outcome. "Okay, you, get all these people out, then pick some people to come in and get those guards, your friend, and Belle. I'm gonna go get your Mom."

With no further words, Dagon raced back into the museum, the smoke now filling the first floor and working its way up to the second. As he ran toward the stairs, he felt a hand grab his ankle, causing him to fall. He looked back and saw a guard holding onto him. I really don't have time for this, he thought. After a swift kick in the face, knocking the guard back out, he was once again back on his feet. Once he was at the stairwell, he came face to face with a wall of flame.

He looked around, and with a wave of his hand, the flames immediately in front of him lowered and eventually died out. But even he knew they wouldn't stay that way. Moving quickly, he raced up to the landing and lifted Fairy Godmother into his arms.

"Come on, Baby," he said as he made his way down the short flight of stairs and out toward the opening. As he was making his way out, a small group of people were already helping the guards, and a stranger each was lifting Belle and Harriet off the floor. "Get them out side, and as far away from the building as possible," he ordered without waiting for them to follow.

Once he was outside he found Jane and laid her mother down on the ground. Jane knelt and took her mother's hand. "Is she…?"

"She's fine," he told the scared fourteen-year-old. He wanted to stay and something more to her to calm her, but he could already hear sirens, and he wasn't sure that someone here wouldn't play hero.

He got up, and with one last look at Jane and her mother, he began running. Jane watched as, after a few yards, he jumped and turned into a black bird, his raven form. As the sirens drew closer, she turned and saw the group she'd sent in coming back out with the guards, Belle, and Harriet. She saw the flames starting to engulf the museum and then looked at her mother. This is all my fault, he thought.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 21 – Aftermath**

The scene at the hospital was chaotic. People were talking incessantly, trying to be heard over everyone else, begging to be seen by the doctors and nurses who were scrambling to handle a situation that none of them ever thought they'd be in. None of them could ever, in recent memory, remember having so many injured people brought in at one time. Sure there was the occasional rush from maybe a car crash, or some kind of celebration that got a little out of hand and an accident occurred, but never anything like the deluge that Dagon had sent them.

Jane watched with red, puffy eyes as the doctors and nurses tended to the guards that had been hurt. She overheard them taking as they rushed back and forth, listing off injuries: broken ribs, broken arms, broken legs, broken noses, fractured collar bones, dislocated bones, concussions, internal bleeding.

"This is all my fault," she whimpered from her seated position between her mother and Harriet. She looked over to the bed next to her mother's and gazed at Belle. Then she turned to see Harriet. Then she fixed her gaze on her mother. All three were still unconscious. Belle had small burns on her face and arms, and if the sight didn't tip you off to it, the smell of singed hair certainly would've told you how much lightning she'd endured. Harriet was more or less okay, the only thing betraying her condition was the black eye forming from where she'd been hit during her sword fight.

Then there was her mother. She was laying on the bed, looking so frail due to the oxygen mask the nurses put on her once they'd found out she was practically in the middle of the flames. Once again she felt her eyes welling with tears, only to feel them falling down her cheeks. She wiped them away and continued to wait for someone, anyone, to come and help her through this.

"I was told the Queen Mother and the Fairy Godmother were brought here," she heard from across the triage unit. She looked up and saw Adam and King Ben standing at the desk. Oh God, she thought in dread, I am so dead. After a watching the nurse quickly type in a few keystrokes, she pointed in the direction that Jane was currently in.

I'm dead, he's gonna kill me, she thought as she saw Adam coming toward her. She felt the tears starting to well in her eyes as she tried to prepare herself for another tirade from him like she got back at the palace yesterday. As they got closer, she stood, her head down but her eyes looking up at them.

"I am so –"

She was cut off mid-apology when Adam grabbed her and pulled her to him. She felt his arms wrap around her and hold her tight, tighter than even her mother did. The gesture was a surprise to the girl who was mentally prepared to be made to cry again. Just like with her mother, the grip was tight enough to give Jane a little trouble breathing, fortunately Adam let go without her needing to inform him.

"Don't you ever run off like that again, do you hear me?" he said after letting go of her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," Jane nodded. "But Mom and…and Belle," she told him softly. Adam turned and looked at his wife and at Jane's mother.

"Ben, get a doctor," he told his son, who nodded and walked off. "Where were you? What happened?"

While they waited for Ben to return, Jane began telling him what happened, still being selective with some details, namely the blonde pirate on the bed next to her mother. Part of her stunned at how easily the lies of omission came to her. Adam looked over Belle, his face worried.

"Found the doctor treating them," they heard Ben say as he approached. They looked up and saw him coming with a tall, young, lanky looking doctor.

"Doctor, thank you," Adam said as he stepped up to the doctor. The doctor bowed politely and Adam ushered him back up with a wave. "How are they, Doctor…?"

"Chase, sire," Doctor Chase answered. "Your wife miraculously only received some minor first and second degree burns which should heal entirely in time. We'll keep her overnight for observation, but other than some of her motor skills and some muscle spasms that shouldn't linger for too long, she should recover fully."

Adam and Ben let out a breaths that they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"What about my Mom?" came Jane's small, scared voice. She stepped in front of Ben and Adam and felt Adam put his hands on her shoulders.

"Tests showed that your mother did inhale some smoke," Doctor Chase began. Jane started to sob at that news and immediately Doctor Chase regretted how he started. "However, she was brought in quickly, so we were able to get her stabilized and begin treatment."

"W…will she be…?"

Doctor Chase nodded. Jane felt herself nearly faint from good news, but Adam was there to hold her up. "Can she go home?" she asked.

"Not yet. Patients with smoke inhalation are kept until we can be sure that there'll be no lingering effects because not all symptoms present right away."

"And my friend?" Jane asked pointing to Harriet.

"Her, she's just unconscious. We ran an X-ray and CT scan, other than a headache when she wakes up, she'll be fine. Can go home today even."

Before anyone else could ask the doctor a question, a nurse came running up, telling him that he was needed for a patient who'd just fallen unconscious. "If you all will please excuse me," Doctor Chase said as he left with the nurse.

"Jane, who's this?" Adam asked after hearing Jane ask about her. She remained silent. "Jane?"

"Thanks for leaving us with the car," came Mal's voice as she approached, Evie, Jay, and Carlos behind her.

"Sorry, but…," Ben started.

"I know, it's your mother," she finished for him. "But you could have at least waited for us to park. This place is so full right now that – Harriet!"

Evie, Jay, and Carlos looked around her and saw what surprised her.

"Whoa, it's Harriet," Carlos said in shock.

"What's she doing here?" Jay asked.

" _How'd_ she get here?" Evie asked.

"Wait, you four know her?" Adam asked.

They all nodded.

"That's Harriet, Harriet Hook – Captain Hook's daughter."

"Jane said that was her friend," Adam revealed to them.

Immediately, all six of them turned toward Jane, each one more or less thinking the same thing: You have quite the explanation in front of you.

* * *

In his raven form, Dagon was capable of masterful feats of acrobatics. Whether flying for distance, speed, or even as another form for fighting in, he was comfortable as a bird. Truth be told, he'd often considered staying in that form most of the time, but he wasn't a fan of the molting process. Sure it made way for maintaining his shiny plumage, but he hated the feeling of feathers falling off. Yet despite his prowess in flight, his current trip was anything but graceful.

He was flying erratically, using every bit of his strength and focus to maintain a forward flying direction. But as he was able to stay straight, he sacrificed altitude as he found it near impossible to stay level for any lengthy period of time. Finally, after what felt hours, he spotted what he'd been looking for – the only place in Auradon where, even with all the media coverage telling people to stay away from him and call in any sightings, he could walk in without trying to hide.

He landed on the ground next to a large tree. He starts the transformation back into a human, but instead of a quick, fluid rise, he fell to one knee. He braced himself against the tree with one hand and forced himself to his feet. He felt the world spin for a second and realized he was in danger was just toppling over if he wasn't careful.

Guess Fairy Godmother's not the only one out of practice, he thought with a self-deprecating smile. He looked up and gauged the distance between his current position and the entrance of where he wanted to go. He guessed it was maybe thirty feet. I should be able to handle that without dropping, he hoped.

 **Chapter 22 – The Pirate, the Beast, and the Fairy**

Harriet felt herself slowly coming to and immediately felt like someone had been tap dancing inside her head. They lights of wherever she was were almost too bright at first, but she was more annoyed by the fact that everything was blurry. She began to lift her hands to try and rub her eyes, but became surprised when she felt them stop as if they'd been caught on something. She looked down and, after forcing her eyes to refocus, saw that her hands had been handcuffed to the side rails of whatever bed she was on.

"What the…?" she wondered to herself as she yanked on the restraints. She looked around the room she was in and realized she was in a hospital. She pulled again at the handcuffs, more frantically this time. She stopped when she started to feel pain in her wrists.

She laid back in defeat, her head impacting the pillow hard. I knew getting involved would screw me, she thought. She closed her eyes and started thinking about how she was going to get out of this. Then she started thinking about the things that might get done to her. Getting sent back to the Isle was at the top of the list. That wasn't too bad, she thought. The part that she was dreading was having to face her father. She'd been gone for a while. He'd undoubtedly searched for her. Hell, he probably made the crew scour the entire island, she thought.

"Dad is going to be so pissed at me," she lamented.

"And I wouldn't blame him one bit, even if he is a villain," came a loud booming voice.

Harriet's eyes shot open, her head coming off the bed. She'd nearly cursed out loud at her luck when she saw former King Beast standing at the foot of her bed.

"How did you get here?" he asked bluntly, not caring one bit fit formalities.

"I…uh…," she stuttered.

"Was there a break in the protective barrier we didn't know about? Are you the only one here? Or are there others? Are you apart of Dagon's plan?"

Harriet's mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out since she didn't know which question to start answering first. She could feel herself becoming hot from nervousness. Back on the Isle she, and most of her friends as well as their parents, always talked about the things they'd like to do to the Big Bad Beast if they ever got him alone in a room.

Now, she had the wish of everyone citizen of the Isle, and she was too afraid to act on her ideas.

Her fear wasn't even from the fact that she was restrained. She just never expected to be in this situation. Or for the Beast to be so intimidating. She'd heard that he was tall, but right now he might as well have been a giant. He was famous for his temper as well, and without a shadow of doubt, Harriet would definitely agree. He looked reasonably calm, but she could tell that he was holding things back to keep from flying off the handle and make this moment a waste of time.

"Harry, you're okay," she heard an excited, tiny voice say. She looked over and saw Jane had come in, still wearing what she'd picked for her this morning, though she was wearing a blue coat that looked three sizes too big as well.

"Janey," Harriet said, happy to see that she was alright.

Jane moved to stand next to Harriet's bed and was shocked at what she saw. "Why is she handcuffed?" she asked Adam.

"Precautions," Adam told her.

"Precautions? Against what?" Jane asked.

"Against me," Harriet revealed.

Jane looked down at her friend and saw the fear in them. She looked back up at Adam and saw the steeled looked of a man who'd already made up his mind about the situation before him.

"But…but she's not a threat," Jane insisted as she took hold of one of Harriet's hands. "She's just a kid, like me, or Mal, or –"

"She's also an escapee from the Isle," Adam said to Jane. "The daughter of a bloodthirsty pirate."

"She's not like that, though. She tried to protect me and Belle," Jane argued. "That's how she got hurt."

"And while I do appreciate her actions today, that doesn't excuse the fact that she is here illegally."

"But –" Jane began only to be cut off.

"What's going to happen to me?" Harriet said in a raised voice in order to stop Jane from continuing.

"Once the current situation is over, and you're properly questioned, you'll be sent back to the Isle," Adam answered her, his voice surprisingly softer. Jane was too caught off guard from the sight of Harriet handcuffed and the realization of how she was being treated to really hear it however.

"Why does she have to go back to the Isle? She hasn't done anything?"

"Jane, there's no questioning this, it's the law."

"But…"

"Jane," Adam raised his voice, quailing her into silence.

"Don't worry, Jane, I figured this might happen. Deep down, I was prepared to go home eventually."

Jane was about to speak up, to try and argue that Harriet should be given the chance to stay. Before she could however, Mal came running into the room.

"Jane, your Mom's awake," the purple haired girl said excitedly. She then looked toward Adam. "So is Belle."

Without waiting for anything else, Adam rushed out of the room, Mal following him. Jane stayed behind, wanting to see her mother, but torn by the fact that she wanted to stay here and try something, anything, to protect her friend.

"You need to go, Janey," Harriet told her.

"But what about you?"

"You heard King Beasty, I'm not going anywhere until they catch Dibalo – Dagon – whatever he's called and they talk to me. So I'm stuck here for a little while longer," she told her friend. Jane opened her mouth to speak when Harriet raised her eyebrows at her since she couldn't really raise a finger. "Go see your mother."

"I'll be back later, I promise," Jane implored as she gave Harriet's hand one last squeeze and ran from the room and back to her mother's side.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 23 – Friends in Low Places**

Not everyone in Auradon was hero deep down, despite what King Beast led people to believe for the last twenty years. These people weren't truly evil either, but not totally good. They were those who had a little bit of an edge to them. A spark that made them, in the opinion of people like Dagon, just a little more interesting that the typical Auradon citizen.

The Bimbettes were members of that group of people. The sisters were the triplets who made up the love struck girls who were practically obsessed with Gaston despite his attraction to Belle. But as the years went on, and they matured, the three of them outgrew what they now knew were crushes of young girls who didn't know to look past Gaston's handsome, muscular exterior and see the arrogant, misogynistic, cruel man underneath.

Now, the Bimbettes were mostly upstanding citizens of the town they and Belle called home. It took them a while, but they were able to shake off the stigma of being more than just a set of dumb blondes making it on their looks and figures. No one would've guessed that that when the old man that owned the bar they waitressed in was ready to close up shop because he wanted to retire, that they'd make him an offer to buy the place. People gave them a month – and that was a generous estimation – before the place went under.

Now, nearly twenty years later, Bimbette's was the location of choice for a good drink, a good meal, or a just a place to while away the hours when you had nothing better to do. The place prided itself in not being too picky on its clientele, which ranged from blue collars stopping by after work, to more notable and famous names and faces who wanted a place where they wouldn't be bothered, mostly thanks to the owners rule of anonymity.

In all of Auradon, it was quite possibly the only place that a man wanted by the whole kingdom could walk in and disappear for the time took it him to eat and drink.

Right now, of the three owners, Laurette was in the office, tending to the books, making sure that the place was still turning a profit. As she was going over the latest figures about the food costs, she heard a knock on the door. She looked and saw her newly turned eighteen year old niece, Clarice, Claudette's daughter, standing at the entrance.

"Yes?"

"Aunt Laurette, there's a guy at the bar who's kind of…well…," Clarice trailed off.

"Don't be afraid, spit it out, sweetie."

"Well, I think he might that guy that's all over the news."

Laurette immediate became interested as a small, almost pleased smirk formed in her face. "Think?"

"Well I didn't really listen to the description they gave on the TV, but –"

Laurette immediately held up a hand to stop her nervous niece. "Is he about six foot, black hair, blue eyes, lean looking, all manner of hot, and gives off an 'I'm sexy because I'm dangerous vibe'?" she asked her niece with an almost wanton tone.

Clarice didn't voice an answer, but the identical smirk confirmed her suspicions.

"Give him anything he wants, don't worry about payment. I'll be out in a little bit to speak with him, okay."

Clarice nodded and left to get back out to the front. Laurette opened the drawer on her desk and pulled out her purse. She fished out her compact, checked herself in her mirror. She then looked down at her outfit. "And something told me to put on something cuter, but eh, this should work," she thought out loud as she assessed her jeans and form fitting button yellow blouse. Smiling, she got up and began making her way up front.

When she got up to the front, she spotted Dagon sitting at the center of the bar. She chuckled when she saw that he was the only one at the bar. Probably scared everyone else off to a table, she mused. She'd looked out over the floor and saw people at the tables going about their business, looking this way and that, but doing their absolute hardest to avoid looking towards the bar. The man's still got it, she thought, even if he does look a little less than one-hundred percent.

"Sir Dagon, as I live and breathe," she practically purred as she stood in front of him. "It's been a while," she smiled at him as she leaned onto the bar.

"Fifteen years give or take," he said. He looked Laurette up and down. "You're still gorgeous I see."

Laurette smiled at the compliment. "And you? Handsome as ever, though if I'm being honest, right now –"

"I'm probably a little rough around the edges?"

"I was going to say you look like hammered crap, but your description works too."

"Had a little run in with Fairy Godmother," he whispered.

" _She_ did that to you?" Laurette said with a giggle. She took stock of the damage, burns to his face and a sickly looking pallor to his skin, and the unmistakable smell of burnt hair. "I see she's still upset."

"Just a little bit," Dagon nodded. "The burns were her. The barely looking like I can stand? Let's uh…let's just say I'm a little out of practice with my magic myself, and uh, I used more than I should've a little too soon."

"Need a place to lay low while you recharge?"

He shook his head. "Just need some fuel," he told her. Almost immediately, Clarice reappeared with a plate of food.

"One double order of wings," she confirmed as she set the plate in front of him.

He took stock of the young girl, noticing the blonde hair, blue eyes, the red and white checkered blouse, and definitely her mother's figure. "Claudette's girl?" he asked with a glance at Laurette.

Laurette nodded.

"You know letting me stay here, even if it just to eat, is gonna cost you, right?"

Laurette shrugged. "Ben's in charge now, rumor is he's more like his mother," she smiled softly at him. "Need me to start anything else for when you're done with those wings?"

"Let's just work our way down the menu for right now."

Laurette smiled and started to make her way to the kitchen to relay instructions to her cook.

 **Chapter 24 – Clues and Leads**

"How are you feeling?" Adam asked Belle as he sat by her bedside.

"Like I got run over," Belle answered weakly, the tiniest traces of a smile trying to form on her lips to show that she was still in good spirits, if not in good form. "How's Fairy Godmother?"

"Go ahead and ask her," Adam told her as he moved slightly to give her a view of the injured fairy. Per Ben's request, the hospital had put the two of them in the same room.

Belle nearly teared up at the sight of her friend. She looked more or less alright, but seeing her wearing an oxygen mask was a little hard to take. "A-are y-you, you," she stuttered, suddenly finding it difficult to speak.

Adam gently quieted her. "The doctors said all the electricity you took might affect your speech and movements," he explained to her.

They heard a whimper from Fairy Godmother. Everyone in the room looked at her and saw her eyes become watery. They watched her mouth move, but she was muffled by the mask. She reached up and began to pull at the straps.

"Mom, don't," Jane implored as she reached for her mother's hands. Fairy Godmother gently pushed her daughter's hands away. Finally, she gripped the mask and pulled it off her.

"I'm…so…sorry," she said, her voice little more than a whisper at the moment. She struggled to speak every word, the effects of the smoke still lingering.

"It's alright, I understand," Belle said.

Fairy Godmother nodded. She then looked around the room and saw Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos were also in the room with them. She then turned to Jane who was next to her bed.

"Are…you…hurt?"

Jane shook her head. Fairy Godmother took in as deep a breath as possible and let it out. She raised her hand and softly stroked her daughter's cheek.

She turned her attention back to Adam. "Dagon? Did…we…"

Adam shook his head. Fairy Godmother closed her eyes and groaned in frustration. At the thought of him still out there she started to feel out of breath and began to cough. Everyone panicked for a second before Jane simply moved the oxygen mask back into place. After a moment, she was breathing normally again and then removed it again.

"Mom, leave it on," Jane begged. Fairy Godmother gently waved her off.

"Adam…find him…,"

"We will," he told her.

She shook her head at him. "Now," she gasped.

"We're looking, just give us time."

She shook her head again, almost frantically this time.

"Now…weak," she gasped.

"Weak?" he repeated. "Who's weak? _He's_ weak?"

Fairy Godmother nodded.

"Used…," she began, stopping for a couple of coughs. "Used…too…much…magic."

"Used too much? What does that mean?" he asked Jane, then turning to look at Mal.

"I don't know," Jane answered out loud. Mal just shrugged and shook her head.

"Like me…," she gasped.

Adam moved to Fairy Godmother's bedside. "What do you mean 'like you'? You're not weak?"

She nodded her head. "Out…of…practice," she told him.

"Out of practice?" Adam asked, his face confused.

"Wait a minute," Mal said, her mind snapping. "Yesterday, at the school, when he was turned back. Fairy Godmother hit him with a blast of energy, but it barely phased him. After he shook it off, he told her she was out of practice."

Adam thought about what he just heard. Fairy Godmother was the most powerful fairy in the world. If she'd chosen to use her powers on someone with ill intent, then they'd be…well he didn't want to think about that. So if someone was telling her that she wasn't at her best, then it meant something.

"Has not using your powers weakened them?" Belle asked.

"For…the…moment," she asked. "That's…why…I…haven't…healed."

"Is that why I slept almost a full day after turning Diablo human?" Jane asked her mother.

Fairy Godmother nodded. "New…users…and…"

"People ago haven't used them in a while?" Mal completed for her. Fairy Godmother nodded. "Their powers weaken them?" Another nod.

"What would Dagon need to do to build his strength back up?" Adam asked.

"Refuel. He…needs…to…eat. A…lot."

"This is good," Adam said. "A lead. Now we just need to figure where he'd go for food."

Fairy Godmother started snapping her fingers.

"Do you know where he'd go?" Ben asked.

"A…friend," she answered.

"Does he even have friends?" Mal asked.

Adam nodded. "And right now, it's probably a very short list."

"The triplets," Fairy Godmother said. "Especially…"

"I know who," Adam told her as he started marching out of the room.

* * *

"Are you sure you should be going with them?" Ben asked as he tried to keep up with his father as he marched down the hospital hallway.

"Someone needs to make sure that Dagon is apprehended," Adam answered his son, not slowing down at all.

"But you saw what he did to those dozen guards we sent. _All_ of them are _here_ ," Ben reminded him. "The last thing Mom needs is you ending up here…or worse."

Adam finally stopped and faced his son. He is so much his mother's son, Adam thought. Despite the stoic, borderline steeled expression, he knew that his son was probably worried as all hell. After all, this was a situation that no one believed would ever happen. And this was an enemy that everyone hoped would stay locked away, both physically and from memory, forever.

But now they had a monster loose in the kingdom, and Adam felt it best to deal with it himself.

"There won't be a worse," he told Ben. "And hopefully I don't end up here either."

"What kind of force are you taking?"

"Three times the amount sent to the museum," Adam said.

"For one man?"

"Ben, you have no clue just who it is we're dealing with," Adam started. "This _one_ _man_ , he could bring the kingdom to its knees if he chose to. Right now, he's dead set on revenge, but after that…Auradon could be next. I need to stop him before that happens."

Ben looked at his father, the weight of the words finally hitting him. He started to speak when Adam cut him off.

"Take care of your mother."

With that, Adam walked off, already planning strategy, thinking of any way possible to take down the devil.

"How do your where to find him?" Ben called after father who was waiting for the elevator.

"Like Fairy Godmother said, I need to see the triplets," he answered as the elevator doors opened.

"What triplets?"

"Ask your mother," Adam responded just before the elevator doors closed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 25 – Devil's Trap**

Dagon had brought out the force of a kingdom. As he sat inside Bimbette's trucks carrying three dozen soldiers were heading straight for him. Adam sat in the lead truck, his expression stern and hard. As they neared their location, all he could see in his mind was Belle laying in that hospital bed, injured and weakened. His blood boiled and he felt an overwhelming urge to break something – anything. Dagon's bones will do, he thought.

The trucks stopped just a block away. The villagers in the surrounding businesses, and those enjoying the outdoors, watched as more troops than they could ever remember seeing flooded out and lined up before the former king and one of their commanders.

"Most of you have never been called for this kind of duty," Adam began addressing the soldiers. He looked next to him, to the commander of the unit, a battle hardened General nearly the same age as himself. One of the few people in the Auradon military that was there when Dagon was active fifteen years earlier. "And while trained for this, you probably assumed a day like this would never happen in this kingdom. But today you're being called to defend Auradon from one of its most feared adversaries. I won't lie to any of you; Dagon is formidable. He's already put a dozen of your comrades in the hospital. But there is a chance that at this moment, he's in a state of weakness. If true, or if he's at full strength again, we will be counting on you to do your duty should he try to escape. General," he said, deferring to the man next to him.

The General cleared his throat.

"Dagon is an enemy like you've never truly been prepared for. Should you be forced to engage him, I am ordering the use of lethal force," he said sternly and with no reluctance. "To your positions."

The soldiers gave a "yes, sir" and began separating, moving to different positions around the business.

"Are you sure you want to do it this way, Sire?" the General asked Adam as they turned to face the front of the building.

"Whether I want to or not is irrelevant. It _needs_ to be done," Adam answered. "What about you? Are you comfortable facing the man who trained you?"

The General looked back at the former king. "When the kingdom is at stake, what you feel doesn't matter. The mission does. _He_ taught me that. Now he gets to live the consequences of those words."

Adam and the General stared at each other, each knowing that one wrong move, one misspoken word, and this could turn into a bloodbath.

* * *

"I've never seen anyone take down that much food," Clarice said as she stood to the far side of bar next to her aunt, watching as Dagon took down a greasy double cheeseburger.

"Magic is a like a muscle, you don't use it, it atrophies," Laurette explained to her niece.

Clarice looked over at her aunt, a look of astonishment on her face. "And you would know that how?" Laurette cocked her head in Dagon's direction. "So did you two ever…you know…?"

"Hook up as you kids say?" Laurette finished. Clarice nodded. "Remember when your mother told you who Gaston was?"

Clarice nodded again. "Yeah, said you three were hopelessly in love with the guy when you were my age."

"We followed him around, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he could have any one of us, or all three of us." Clarice recoiled with a grossed out expression. "Yeah, we weren't exactly very good at picking men back then. But Gaston never took the bait; too in love – obsessed actually – with Queen Belle. Dagon didn't have that problem."

Clarice's eyes widened at those words. "So you and him have…?"

Laurette nodded. "I was young- _er_ and well, what girl doesn't love a bad boy?" Clarice giggled and nodded in affirmation.

Without being obvious, Laurette cast a quick glance at the security monitor near where Clarice and she were standing and immediately became concerned. "Something wrong, Aunt Laurette?"

"No," she said, "just some visitors are a little early."

Laurette moved away from her niece and began making her way toward Dagon. Clarice cast a glance at the monitor and saw what had caught her aunt's attention. On the camera feed showing the front of the building, she could see a group of soldiers beginning to surround the bar.

Dagon looked up when Laurette stood in front of him, a look of worry on her face. "You're going to make me pay aren't you?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Better."

"Strong enough for a fight?" she asked him bluntly. Dagon raised an eyebrow at her. "Adam's here, and he brought friends. Lots of them."

Dagon turned his head, looking behind him toward the scattered tables. He counted at least thirty people. Definitely more than when I came in, he thought.

"Do you know how many friends?"

"Over twenty by the look of it," she answered him.

"I'm feeling better," he told her. "But not well enough to take on that many yet."

"I have a back way out," she informed him. She placed her hands on top of his. "Use it."

Before Dagon could refuse the offer, he heard the front entrance open. Everyone looked up and immediately the light hum of conversation halted, leaving only a tense silence. Without turning, Dagon could hear two pairs of boots waking through the room, coming to a stop a few feet behind him.

"Your Majesty," Dagon said while looking at Laurette's face. He watched her mouth the word star to him. "General."

"Turn around."

Dagon didn't need to be facing the pair of men to know that Adam had spoken. He could hear the authority in his voice. He started to push away from the counter, pausing when Laurette's hand gripped his tighter. He looked at her, gave a small curling of his lips at the expression of concern, and winked at her. The message was clear; I've got this. Dagon turned, but remained sitting on his stool.

"Matthews," he greeted the General. "Congratulations on the pair of stars."

Without any words spoken, Matthews pulled his weapon and aimed it at Dagon. Dagon didn't flinch.

"Are you here to kill me, Adam?"

"It's Your Majesty," Adam corrected him.

"Whatever the once and _former_ king says," Dagon jabbed. He saw Adam's jaw clench.

"We can do this easily," Adam began, crossing his arms in front of himself. "You can come peacefully, and no one needs to get hurt."

"No option B?"

"Me and my guards are option B," Matthews answered, his glare still locked on Dagon.

"If you're going to hold a gun on me, do it right," Dagon scolded Matthews as he shifted his gaze toward him. "I taught you to aim for head or heart, not shoulder." He then turned his attention back to Adam. "No wonder his troops failed so spectacularly today," Dagon criticized with restrained glee.

General Matthews stepped forward, putting his weapon mere inches from Dagon's face. Dagon stared at Matthews eyes. "You don't have the stones," he said to his former protégé. With a flick of his thumb Matthews fed a round into the chamber.

The next thing anyone saw, and just barely, was Dagon grabbing hold of Matthews' wrist with his left hand and yanking him forward. He delivered a quick shot to Matthews' throat with two of the fingers on his right hand. As Matthews began choking and gasping, Dagon grabbed the gun out of his hand. He then pistol whipped the General, forcing him to the floor. Immediately there were gaps and screams as the customers in the bar began leaving their seats and moving toward the door.

"Dagon, no," Laurette screamed from behind the bar. Clarice screamed as well, but unlike her aunt, she dove for cover under the bar.

Adam put his hands up and took a step back.

"Aww, Adam," Dagon tisked as he pointed the gun at the former king, "you and I both know that as well as I can use these things, I don't like them."

Adam and Laurette then watched Dagon take apart the gun, forcing the chambered round out and to the floor. He then threw the gun at Adam's feet and placed the clip on the bar on front of Laurette.

"As much as I'd like to impress the pretty blonde by fighting my way out of here and past the troops you brought, better to live and fight another day and all that."

To everyone's astonishment, Dagon proceeded to stand and raised his hands in surrender.

 **Part 26 – A Queen's Mercy**

Despite knowing what her fate was going to be, Harriet felt no fear as she laid in her hospital bed. After all, it just meant she was going home. Sure, there were some nerves as she realized that she'd have to face her father who no doubt was going to be beyond angry for her going away for so long. There was also some annoyance at the thought of Harry and CJ becoming way too happy at that sight of her father shouting at her. But there was no fear.

No, what Harriet felt more than anything…was boredom. All she could do was lay there, and think, and lay there. The TV wasn't connected, and even if it was, the remote had been disconnected from the bed. If it wasn't for the food she'd been brought, she'd have nothing to focus on. As it was, she was glad that she hadn't been disallowed a meal.

"Are you still working on that, hon?" a nurse asked as she entered the room.

"Is the plate empty?" Harriet responded sarcastically toward the half eaten plate. The nurse huffed and gave the teenage pirate a forced smile. Without another word, the nurse walked up to the tray and placed the cover back on it. "I'm still eating," Harriet snarled placing her hands on top of the tray and holding down.

"Dinnertime is over," the nurse said back, and even though she was smiling, her voice was tense firm.

Before Harriet could even try and contemplating some kind of response – verbal or otherwise – a new player entered the room.

"Hello, everyone," Belle said cheerfully as she made her way over the side of Harriet's bed, a yellow robe over what must be her hospital gown. Following behind her was Jane, still wearing that comically oversized coat.

"Your Majesty," the nurse gasped, bowing quickly out of the shock.

"How's…," Belle trailed off, glancing at Jane.

"Harriet."

"How's Harriet doing?"

"Just fine, ma'am. In fact, I was just removing her tray now that dinner is over," the nurse answered nervously.

Belle noticed the way that Harriet was practically guarding the covered tray. She reached down and gently waved Harriet's hand off. She then lifted the cover and saw how much was still left on the plate. "It looks like she's still working on it," Belle commented. "How about we pick it up a little later?" The tone of Belle's voice let the nurse know that this wasn't really a question.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the nurse replied, quickly making her way out of the room.

"So you're the new villain child causing quite the commotion around here? Hello, my name's Belle."

"Harriet Hook," Harriet told Belle cautiously. "You'll forgive me if I don't curtsy Your Highness, but," she added glibly, raising the arm that was still handcuffed, the sound of the restraint hitting the railing a reminder to everyone of her current state as a fugitive.

"Harry, be nice," Jane scolded.

"It's alright, Jane," she told the younger girl. "It's nice to see that you have your father's defiant sense of…humor," Belle told Harriet. Harriet looked at Belle questioningly. "You may find this difficult to believe, but I know your father."

"How?"

"That's not important at this moment. What is important is that I want to thank you." Harriet looked at the Queen Mother in disbelief. She then looked to Jane, who smiled at her. "You put yourself at quite the risk to protect Jane, here."

"Well, she's…she, um, rather grows on you," Harriet replied.

"Yes she does," Belle smiled. "And I must say, knowing Dagon the way I do as well, I'm surprised to see how well you handled yourself against him."

"Dad's been teaching me how to handle a sword since I was four."

"And he did a good job," Jane gushed.

"Yeah, but it's still not enough to have my sentence commuted is it?" Harriet asked snidely.

"Sadly no," Belle told the young girl. "Adam has already arranged for your transfer back to the Isle once Dagon's been caught."

"But Belle," Jane implored.

Belle held up her hand. Just like her husband, Harriet thought.

"I'm sorry, Jane, there's nothing I can do to stop it." But as she finished that statement, both girls watched a sly little smirk grace her lips. "All I can do at this point is _maybe_ slow down the process…while I work on Ben, who _can_ stop it."

Jane let out a gasp, her face glowing with her smile. "She can stay?"

"I never said that," Belle answered. "Only Ben can make that call, but knowing him, especially after what she did to protect you and me, it's a strong possibility."

Jane squealed and hugged Belle. She said thank you as she released her and then looked to Harriet. "What's wrong?" she asked when she saw that Harriet still looked stoic rather than as elated as she was. "You're gonna get to stay."

"I'm…I'm just trying not to get too excited yet. In case it doesn't…"

"Oh, I'm gonna make sure it happens," Jane said firmly. "Just watch me."

Belle looked at Jane, hardly recognizing her. This was not the same shy, meek, mousey girl that she was accustomed to. Something had gotten into her, and it was bringing out a confidence that wasn't there before. While she was cautious about, she was also happy to see it.

The three of them were brought out of their moment by a knock in the door. They turned to look at it and saw Mal.

"Ben's on his way back to the castle. They caught him."

 **Part 27 – Jailbird**

Ben was waiting in a place he didn't know end existed – the dungeons. It was a fortified structure that was laid several feet underneath the palace. It was a place that had laid empty for almost twenty years. No one in Auradon had committed a crime severe enough to ever be put here. No one in Auradon had ever really committed a crime, Ben mused to himself.

But now, now they would finally see some use as now, being flanked by about fifty guards, Ben stood ready to see what both his mother and father regarded as the most dangerous man in the kingdom. He watched as the large black armored vehicle bringing in Dagon approached. It came to a stop in front of the assembled mass of guards, its back to them and the door to the dungeons. At the command of the highest ranking officer, the guards readied the aim of their weapons at the truck.

A guard walked up and punched in a code and then opened the door. Two guards moved out from the units and positioned themselves in flanking positions to the door. Several tense seconds later, a man dressed in a black suit came walking out. His hands and feet were shackled and he was wearing some kind of muzzle. This was Dagon, captured and restrained. Even through the mask however, Ben couldn't help but feel like Dagon looked familiar.

Once Dagon was clear of the truck, Ben watched his father emerge, a steel case in his hands. He handed the case off to another guard. "Lock this away," he ordered. The guard gave a "yes, sir" and left with the case.

Ben motioned in the guard's direction. "Dagon wears gloves that act as a form of magic wand to focus his magic. They're in the box."

"While we're at it, do you think we have enough guards?" Ben asked.

"Considering that Dagon is shackled and incapable of speech, for once: yes," Adam answered confidently. "Take him inside. His cell's already been prepared."

The guards leading Dagon began pulling him in toward the dungeons. Once they were inside, the large steel door shut behind them.

"Speaking of incapable of speech, why is he muzzle? It's inhumane," Ben told his father.

"I took his gloves away, but he's still capable of speaking spells. So Fairy Godmother provided us with the muzzle to keep him from talking. It's also been etched with enchantments to keep his magic subdued so he can't use spells said in his mind. Do I like having to use it? No, because you're right, it is inhumane. But the alternative is far worse."

Ben looked like he was about to speak. Adam placed ha hand on his son's shoulder. "Don't worry, once he's inside his cell, the muzzle, and leg shackles will be taken off. Unlike him, we're _not_ monsters."


	12. Chapter 12

**Part 28 – Witness Protection**

"Mom, stop," Jane begged as she tried to force her mother back into her hospital bed. Mal stepped up and tried to help the younger fairy.

"Girls, let me up," Fairy Godmother said, her voice sounding more normal than it had earlier in the day. The rest and the food she'd requested already helping her powers reassert themselves, and in turn start healing her.

"Fairy Godmother, you can't leave until tomorrow," Belle said from her seated position on her bed.

Fairy Godmother shook her head. "No, they've got him, I should be there to help."

"In this condition?" Belle raised her voice. "You'd be more hindrance than help. Besides, the cell he's in will hold – it was designed by you after all," she pointed out.

"And Ben told me that most of the other royals are already coming in tonight. By tomorrow, they'll decide on how to handle him," Mal added. "You should wait until tomorrow when you're feeling better."

"If not for that reason, think about your daughter," Belle tried. "You're scaring her by trying this."

Fairy Godmother looked at Jane. Her daughter was doing a good job of hiding what she was feeling at the moment, but knowing her better than anyone else, one look at those big blue eyes and she could tell that what Belle was saying was true. Jane was scared. Relenting, she laid back down.

"Thank you," Jane sighed.

"I want them confined to a dorm room together," Fairy Godmother said to Belle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mal spoke up. "Confined to a dorm? Why?"

"Because I don't want to risk him coming after Jane for more use of her powers, and knowing his relationship with your mother, do I really need to explain why you need to be protected?"

"Yes, because that means I'm probably the last person he'll come after," Mal argued.

Fairy Godmother looked at Belle. "That's my price for staying here. No negotiations. No arguments."

"That's fine," Belle agreed.

"Don't we get a say in this?" Mal shouted.

"No," Belle replied. "Believe it or not girls, but this is for your own protection." She turned back toward Fairy Godmother. "I'll have guards take them back to school and stand guard outside the room they're put in."

"Thank you," Fairy Godmother said.

* * *

Mal and Jane were sitting in Mal's dorm room. Evie had been sent to stay in Jane's room with Audrey for the time being. Mal was on her bed, sitting up against the headboard, her knees pulled up to hold her sketch pad as she doodled mindlessly. Jane was laying back on Evie's bed, her hands clasped across her stomach, trying to sleep since it had been hours since they left the hospital. It was almost eleven and the day was finally catching up to her.

Unfortunately, rest wouldn't come. All she could see when she closed her eyes were flashes of a bird turning into a man. Of the same man brutally beating royal guards. Of her mother showing her a side she'd never seen before. Of her mother looking so helpless in that hospital bed.

"Why do you think she hates him so much?" Jane said out loud.

"Huh?" Mal looked up.

"My Mom. Why does she hate Dagon so much?" Jane asked again as she sat up.

"I don't know. Are you sure she _hates_ him?"

Jane nodded. "Mal, you didn't see her at the museum. The look on her face. I've never seen that. It was…it was terrifying. If Belle hadn't stopped her, I really think she would've killed him."

" _Your_ mother? The Fairy Godmother? Does she even know how to kill?" Mal asked in disbelief.

"You saw what Belle looked like. Dagon got almost twice that," Jane told her. Mal shivered. She'd already envisioned her mother as the one who'd kill, not Fairy Godmother.

"Something happened between those two, then," Mal said. Jane nodded. "We need to find out what."

"We do?" Jane asked timidly. Mal just looked at her like she had lost her mind. "We do," Jane said, the reluctance clear in her voice. "But why? And how?"

"Why? Because were connected in all this." Jane looked at Mal, waiting for more. "Remember what you said? That something inside you was practically pushing you to make him human."

Jane nodded. "But why are you connected?"

"Because ever since I saw him, I can't stop doing this," Mal answered as she went to sit next to Jane and showed her sketchbook. On the page was a likeness of Dagon. Jane flipped to the pages before the current one. More drawings of Dagon. "Even when I'm not even trying, I'm just doodling or just running the pencil over the page, nothing in my head, he happens," Mal revealed as Jane flipped through the pages.

"You think it might have to do with him being your mother's sidekick?"

Mal shrugged.

"I think we need him to answer that," Mal said.

"Easier said than done," Jane said. "The guards outside aren't going let us out of this room. And even if we could get out, we don't know where he's being held."

"Ben told me that the dungeons, are under the castle. And getting out of here, not that difficult," Mal told Jane as she got up and got her mother's spell book. She flipped through it until she found the page she wanted and handed the open book to Jane.

"Your mother has a spell that can take her to him?" Jane asked as she read the page.

"Uh-huh, and do you what the best part of the spell is?" she smiled as Jane kept reading.

"That we can do it from in here," Jane smiled. Then her face fell into a look of apprehension. "You do know how much trouble will get in, right?"

"Bad things, right reasons. Ends justify the means," Mal said in an effort to convince Jane.

"Do you think it'll work to find him?"

"I figure with both of powers behind it, we got a shot."

Jane nodded resolutely. "Let's go."

 **Part 29 – Face to Face with the Devil**

Dagon was laying back on the bed in his cell, his eyes closed, and waiting for someone to tell him it was time to head back to the Isle. He was in quiet contemplation when suddenly, he heard the wind actually picking up _inside_ the walls of this cell. He calmly opened his eyes and turned toward the entrance door. Billowing purple and dark blue smoke was filling the area in front of the bars. He waited for the show to stop, and then he sat up quickly, his eyes wide and body showing his surprise. Standing before him were Mal and Jane.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We need to talk," Mal answered.

* * *

In her bed at the hospital, Fairy godmother was tossing and turning. Images of a dungeon with a specially constructed iron cell inside of it were flashing in her mind. Dagon was getting off his bed and approaching the bars. A flash from his point of view – of Mal and Jane standing opposite him.

"Girls…no…get away," she mumbled in her sleep.

Dagon was moving toward the bars.

"Stay away from them," she shouted.

Belle immediately awoke. She looked over and saw Fairy Godmother sitting up in bed. "Are you alright?" she asked when noticed that Fairy Godmother was practically hyperventilating.

"They're with him," she gasped. "Oh my God."

She threw off her covers and raced out of bed. She stood next to it and began looking around. Where are my clothes, she thought. As she was looking around, she spotted the robe that Jane had brought her. She grabbed it and began shoving it on.

"What's going on?" Belle said as she got out of her own bed and started to follow her. After Fairy Godmother had gotten the robe on she grabbed her by the shoulders and held her still. "Fairy Godmother, what is going on?"

"Dagon – the girls, they're with him," she answered.

"He escaped?"

Fairy Godmother shook her head. "They're with him. They went to his cell."

"Are you sure? They're supposed to be confined to Mal's room."

Fairy Godmother nodded. "A spell, that's the only thing I can think of. I have to get to them. Before he…before they…"

Belle grabbed Fairy Godmother's hands and held them. "Stop, you need to calm down."

"Calm down? Belle, they're with a monster."

"We'll call Adam, he'll get some guards down –"

Fairy Godmother shook her hands free of Belle's. "No, I can't wait that long," she said. She raised her right hand, and Belle watched as her wand appeared in it. "I'm going now."

Fairy Godmother then turned the wand on herself and tapped it to her shoulder. Swirling lights immediately started flowing around her. Before they could completely engulf her, Belle threw her arms around Fairy Godmother. The lights then surrounded her as well. Seconds later, both women were gone from the room.

 **Part 30 – Secrets and Lies**

"We need to talk?" Dagon repeated to Mal, his voice dripping with a firm rebuke.

"Y-yeah," Mal stuttered. Despite her initial bravado, the stories behind the man in front of her were enough to instill a small bit of fear.

Dagon grinned evilly and turned toward Jane. "How's your mother?"

"Um…she's…"

"Hey," Mal shouted. "You leave her alone."

Dagon turned his attention back to the purple-haired girl. "Excuse me?" he asked angrily. "Who do you think you are to use that voice on me?"

"You…you used to with for my mother. The way I see it, with her gone – you work for me now."

"Mal," Jane whispered, trying to get her to stop.

"I worked _with_ your mother. And don't for one second think that the leeway she had to speak to me like that in any way extends to you, little girl." He then turned back toward Jane. "Again: how's your mother?"

"She's okay, just a little smoke inhalation."

"Once her powers kick in fully, she'll heal fully," he told her. "Now," he said, his gaze travelling between the two of them, "to what do I owe this audience?"

"What are you doing here?" Mal asked.

"Setting things right. Auradon was very, very bad to me a long time ago," he grinned.

"So you're going to destroy a kingdom because of –"

"I never said I was destroying the kingdom," he cut Mal off. "I said I was setting things right."

"Why did you come to me?" Jane squeaked.

Dagon chuckled. "Because Fairy Godmother was _not_ going to turn me back." He turned to Mal. "And even if she was around and capable of it, your mother wouldn't have been much help either. She prefers me as a bird since the last time I was a man around her, well…it was less than acrimonious. And you? You knew the stories, and when I stopped being a statue, you were terrified of me. No way were you going to help."

Mal shook her head. "True, but there was always Freddie. You went to Jane for a reason. What was it?"

"I'm not ready to tell that. Not enough people around."

Before Mal could question him again, there was the stirring of more wind picking up inside the cell. Dagon watched as a bright swirling spectacle of light appeared behind the girls. The three of them watched as the light died down and Fairy Godmother and Belle now stood in the cell as well.

"You jumped the sparkle?" Fairy Godmother asked angrily when she realized that she had not come alone.

"I'm trying to stop you from doing something drastic."

"Which ironically, you've just failed at, Your Majesty," Dagon quipped. Belle and Fairy Godmother turned and looked at Dagon as he leaned against the bars.

"You," Fairy Godmother growled at him. She moved toward him, pulling Jane and Mal away and toward Belle. She tried to speak again, but words failed her at the moment. All she could do was stare at him, her anger boiling over and causing her to shake with almost seething hatred. "You should've stayed a statue."

"It's lovely to see you, too," he said. There was no bravado, no cockiness, and no defiance in his voice. It was soft, simple, the way you speak to an old friend. "You're not too hurt are you?"

"Don't you dare speak to me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like we're friends," she clarified.

"Just _friends_? I'm hurt at how you deny it," he told her.

"We should get out of here," Belle said to her, her hands protectively perched on the girls.

"This is quite the impressive set of lock down measures you've got me under – your doing no doubt?" Dagon quipped at Fairy Godmother. He held up his hands which were restrained in a set of metal shackles with inscriptions on them. "Magic inhibiting shackles. An iron cage, of which I appreciate the irony," he said in reference to the bars. "And…," he trailed off, reaching past the bars, only to have a golden barrier stop his progression. "My very own magic inhibiting barrier. Seems like just a little bit of overkill for little old me."

"Actually, I think it's just the right amount of kill," she responded. "Are you here to kill Joshua, too?"

Dagon's jaw clenched at the sound of that name. "I already told you, I'm here –"

"To set things right. What does that even mean?"

"It means Auradon has to answer for its crimes against me."

Fairy Godmother laughed. He always had an ego problem, she thought, but now he's just acting like the world is against him. " _It's_ crimes? You're the one who murdered in cold blood."

"Still believing that, huh? Even after all these years, not one benefit of doubt. Not even a chance to present my case."

"There was no need for it. We had proof," Fairy Godmother pointed out.

"You had a lie. A lie, that despite everything between us, you believed over me."

"What was between you two?" Jane said from where she was standing with Belle and Mal.

"Jane, be quiet," Fairy Godmother ordered.

"Don't you talk to her that way," Dagon came to her defense. "She asked a good question. What is between her mother and the devil?"

"She doesn't need to know," Fairy Godmother said through gritted teeth.

"The hell she doesn't," Dagon said. "She should've been told years ago. Not lied to."

"He's right," Belle interjected. Fairy Godmother turned to stare at her friend in shock. "She deserves to know, especially now with what's going on."

Fairy Godmother shook her head, her eyes starting to water.

"Mom?"

"Tell her, or I will," Dagon said.

"She'll never believe you," Fairy Godmother said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Which is why you'll tell her," Dagon said.

Fairy Godmother shook her head.

"Tell her," Belle implored.

More head shaking.

"Tell her," Dagon said. When Fairy Godmother still didn't speak, he shouted. "Tell her!"

"Mom?"

Fairy Godmother closed her eyes. "Oh God, Janey," she whimpered. "Years ago, Dagon and I…we were…we were together."

"Together?" Mal asked.

"Intimately," Fairy Godmother said, a small tear traveling down her cheek from the pressure. "I ended up…I became…"

"Oh my God," Mal gasped, her mind inferring what was coming next.

"M-Mom…"

"Jane…Dagon is, he's…oh god," Fairy Godmother sobbed. "He's your father."

Jane's eyes widened and the blood drained from her face. Her lips began quivering and she could feel her eyes watering. Her head began to shake back and forth. She suddenly felt very cold.

"No," she said. "He's dead. My father's dead, you told me so."

"You told her I was dead?"

"Shut up," Jane shouted. "It's not true. My father's dead. He's not…he's not a villain. He's dead. You're not dead. You're not my father!"

Jane felt Belle's arms wrap around get from behind. They squeezed her tight. Jane could feel Belle's breath next to her ear.

"I'm so sorry, Janey, but it's true. He's your father," Belle told her.

At Belle's confirmation Jane broke down. Tears ran down her face as she started crying uncontrollably. She started shaking her head, sobbing out "no, no, no" over and over until finally she felt her legs go weak and she fell to her knees. Mal immediately drop to hers next to the scared fourteen year old. She wrapped her own arms around her, and like when Adam had yelled at her, Jane buried her face into Mal's shoulder.

"Are you happy, now?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"You're not done," Dagon answered.

"No, don't make me say that too," Fairy Godmother implored.

"What more could she have to say?" Jane shouted at them.

Fairy Godmother turned toward Dagon. "Please don't."

"The truth needs to come out," he whispered at her.

Fairy Godmother took a deep breath and turned back toward Belle, Mal, and a still crying Jane. "Dagon isn't just Jane's father. He's yours too, Mal."

Mal stared at Fairy Godmother blankly. Jane's face turned toward her mother again, her grip on Mal tightening at those words.

"What?" Mal asked in disbelief.

"Dagon is your father," Fairy Godmother repeated.

"But that would mean…that means me and Jane are…?"

"Sisters," Fairy Godmother finished for her. "You and Jane…are sisters."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 31 – Showing His Hand**

When the dungeons were in use all those years ago, most prisoners found it difficult to sleep their first night after their capture. It was the realization that they were heading back to the Isle, so they were contemplating the first moves they'd be making once they got there. Do they set up a home and fortify it? Do they try an alliance? Do they try and figure out what they did wrong in order to get caught?

Dagon wasn't one of those prisoners.

He was sleeping like a baby without a care in the world. He would've stayed that way if it hadn't been for the sound of the door to his cell opening rousing him from sleep. He sat up, his eyes opening at the same time. When he saw his visitor, he shot up from his bunk and sped his way over to the front to meet them.

"You have a lot of stones showing up here," Dagon said, his voice dripping with anger.

"Hello to you too, Dagon," Joshua Merlin said as stood on the other side of the bars. "You know, I was very surprised to hear that you had returned – in human form no less. I was even more surprised to hear that you had been recaptured so easily. Losing a step or two there old friend?" he asked mockingly.

"Why don't you let me loose and we'll find out."

"Itching to kill me? Like you killed my brother?"

"I didn't touch him," Dagon corrected.

Joshua tisked at him. "Ah, poor Dagon, still clinging to his defense. I always pictured you as a higher class of murderer. The kind who _wasn't_ afraid to own up to the blood on his hands."

"As long as that blood is there," Dagon pointed out. "As far as your brother's blood is concerned, my hands are clean."

Joshua looked back at him, his gaze passive. He stepped closer to the cage, standing just close enough to not touch the magic barrier.

"The Council of Royals has been called. Most of them are already here. They'll be meeting tomorrow. They – with a strong recommendation from me – will be deciding what to do with you."

"They'll just put me back on the Isle."

"Maybe. But there is a provision in the original laws of Auradon. Little known, and even less used, that can call for a vote…of execution. And I can't think of a better person to use it on than the Devil himself," Joshua grinned.

"That vote needs to be unanimous. And then it has be approved by the king," Dagon retorted. Joshua looked at him, a split second of wide-eyed surprise. "Yeah, I know about it. And something tells me, even if you get the vote, you'll never get the approval."

Joshua pressed his hand to the barrier, waves of energy rippling out like they would on the surface of disturbed water. He then removed his hand, inspecting it for damage. "She did a very good job with this barrier. Hell, your entire imprisonment, temporary as it may be here, is a testament to Fairy Godmother's foresight and abilities. She's certainly not the completely cheerful, aloof sprite she lets people believe. But you know that already, don't you?"

"You always were attracted to her power weren't you? Must burn you that she chose me," Dagon taunted.

Joshua clenched his jaw. "Yes well, in the time you've been gone, I've taken very good care of her. Jane too. In fact, if I may so…I've become like a father to her."

Dagon grabbed the bars and leaned in as far they would let him. "You stay away from them, do you hear me? You go near them, and I'll make sure they have to use the execution law after I carve you into pieces and send the parts back to Camelot one by one."

Joshua smiled.

"Now there's the Dagon I want to see. The man not afraid to threaten a life to protect what's his. Tell me, does that threat include your other little spawn?"

Dagon took in a deep breath.

"You know what? It doesn't matter, because once you're gone, I'll, and sadly this will be against Fairy Godmother's protests, I'll petition the Council that for the good of the Kingdom, that we need to strip your little mongrel bastards of their powers forever."

Dagon lunged at Joshua, his body being halted by the cage and the barrier being the only thing protecting Joshua from Dagon's reaching hand.

"You're not going to get the chance," Dagon growled. "I'll put you in the ground before I let you do anything my girls."

"We shall see," Joshua smirked. "Until later, _Sir_ Dagon," he laughed as he excised the cell.

 **Chapter 32 – Coming Clean**

The main family room at Beast Castle was used by the royal family as a place for them to come together and be just that…a family. It was where they spent holidays, birthdays, and all manner of special occasions. It was filled with many warm and happy memories. Right now it was being used to comfort two young women who'd just had their entire worlds, and everything they believed in, torn down.

Mal and Jane were surrounded by their friends. Evie was sitting next to Mal on one of the couches, letting her purple-haired friend lean against her, her head resting on her shoulder. Evie's arm was wrapped around Mal's shoulders. Mal had stopped crying, but now she was just in an expressionless daze. It was a little unnerving to the rest of the people in the room. Jay and Carlos had never seen her like this, let alone Doug, Lonnie, Freddie, and Audrey.

Jane had taken up a spot on the floor in front of the couch that Mal and Evie were on. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, tucking herself into a ball, her eyes still puffy and blood shot from her latest session of crying. Next to her was Freddie of all people. Unlike Evie, she wasn't holding Jane by the shoulders, the small act of kindness still foreign to the daughter of the Shadow Man. Carlos was sitting on the couch, on the opposite end of where Mal and Evie were. His knees were pulled up so his feet were defiantly on the couch. His left hand was occasionally on Jane's shoulder, squeezing it to let her know he was there. He didn't know it, but the small gesture was probably the only thing keeping from feeling totally alone.

The rest of the VKs and AKs were sitting on the various chairs and couches that had been moved closer to their friends.

"Is anyone going to say something?" Audrey asked when the silence became too much.

"Like what, Audrey?" Freddie asked her annoyed.

"I don't know. _Something_. Anything. I mean we all get called because apparently these two decided to confront Diablo, and find out they're sisters when they do – and no one wants to talk about it?" Audrey ranted.

"Because they're obviously still processing it," Jay told her.

"How are you guys doing?" Lonnie asked gently.

Mal shrugged, still zoned out, while Jane sniffled.

"Can we get you guys anything?" Doug asked.

Both sisters shook their heads. Before anyone else could speak up, Belle and Fairy Godmother walked in. They both looked sullen, their normally cheery faces missing. "How are they holding up?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"As well as can be expected," Evie answered.

"Maybe if Freddie could muster up an arm or shoulder, Jane might be a little better," Jay joked.

Both older women looked at each other. "We think we have something – or rather someone – who can help with that," Belle said.

The group watched as Belle went back to the door and waved to someone in the hallway. Everyone watched as, seconds later, Harriet came walking into the room. There were some open mouths and a few gasps that became even more astonished when Harriet made a direct line for Jane, sitting next to her on the opposite side of where Freddie was. Jane immediately leaned over and rested her head on Harriet's shoulder. Harriet wrapped her arm around the young half-fairy, surprising all who saw it because of how much it mirrored Mal and Evie.

"How you doing, Janey?" Harriet asked softly. Jane began crying again, pressing herself even further into her friend. "It's okay, Janey. You'll be okay," she comforted as she leaned her head over and laid it on top of Jane's.

"Jane…is there anything I can get you?" Fairy Godmother asked. She then turned to Mal on the couch. "Or you, Mal?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jane sobbed as she lifted her head from Harriet's shoulder. Fairy Godmother looked at her daughter and didn't know how to answer her. "Mom…why?"

"Jane, I…I thought I was protecting you."

"By lying to me?" Jane asked. "By telling me that my father was dead?"

Fairy Godmother stepped closer. "Jane, you have to understand –"

"You should have told me that my father was alive," Jane shouted at her mother. She then looked up and over at Mal. "You should've told me that I had a sister."

"Janey…it wasn't that simple," Fairy Godmother tried to explain.

"The hell it wasn't," Mal finally spoke. "When I came over from the Isle, you knew who I was to Jane, didn't you?" Fairy Godmother nodded. "And you knew too, didn't you Belle?" Belle nodded. "Who else knew?"

"Who else knew?" Jane repeated when neither woman spoke up.

Belle and Fairy Godmother looked at each other. Fairy Godmother shook her head. "We can't keep lying to them, or holding back from them," Belle said. "After everything that's happened, we owe them the truth."

Fairy Godmother closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This is going to end horribly, she thought as she nodded her head. They motioned for Jane to join Mal on the couch. She did, with Harriet taking up the space next to Jane, after Carlos moved, while Evie remained by Mal's side. Both young fairies had their respective friend holding their hands. To Belle and Fairy Godmother's surprise, Jane and Mal took each other's hands as well. Belle and Fairy Godmother pulled up a pair of chairs and sat across from the couch, looking at the girls.

Fairy Godmother let out a sigh before starting.

"All of the royals know that Dagon is your father, girls." She watched as both of them let out groans of frustration. "After what happened with him back then, it was agreed that it was best if Dagon was, for lack of a better term, erased from Auradon history. That meant no mention of him, other than as Diablo of course."

"But why didn't you tell me?" Jane asked, the hurt in her voice evident for everyone to hear.

"Do you know how hard it was to know that the man that fathered your child was…," Fairy Godmother trailed off, still unable to admit what he was. "I knew that one day you'd start asking about your father, Jane. I honestly believed it was better if you thought he was dead instead of a…"

"A villain?" Jane finished.

"Not the exact word she was probably going to use, but that fits too," Belle said.

"How is he my father?" Mal asked timidly.

"At sixteen you can't guess?" Audrey blurted.

"What's her name?" Harriet asked pointing at Audrey.

"I'm Audrey," the pink clad princesses introduced.

"Shut it, Audrey," Harriet barked at her.

"What I meant was, my mom kept telling me that my dad was human…and weak. This guy is far from weak," Mal clarified.

"Mal, your mother regards love as weak. The reason she said he was weak was because when she found out that I was pregnant with Jane, she knew what happened. And it infuriated her," Fairy Godmother told her.

"So Dagon was in love with you?" Evie asked in complete disbelief.

Fairy Godmother nodded.

"And were you…?" Jane started to ask, but stopping, not knowing if she wanted to find out.

"Completely. Unbelievably," Fairy Godmother answered her daughter.

"So what happened?" Mal asked. "I mean how did he end up in Auradon?"

"What do you kids know about the history of the Isle?" Belle asked. "The VKs specifically."

They looked at her in confusion. "It's a prison, set up to hold our parents," Mal answered.

"Your parents never mentioned a breakout?" Fairy Godmother asked.

All the VKs shook their heads.

"Twenty years ago," Belle began, "we put all the villains and their sidekicks on the Isle. Instead of a barrier, it first had a giant wall that did the same thing as the barrier – blocked the magic of anyone or anything inside of it. While most of the villains who used magic were rendered mostly harmless, we didn't count on Dagon being as intelligent or resourceful as he was. He not only found a way over the wall, but he found out where it opened. All of the villains escaped and scattered back into Auradon."

"I was tasked by Adam to stop Maleficent, but I failed," Fairy Godmother told them. There were astonished looks at the news of Fairy Godmother losing a confrontation. "You see, I'm…much older than I look – older than Maleficent even – and I was showing my age."

"So the stories of you looking like a grandmother when you showed up to Cinderella are true?" Harriet asked. Fairy Godmother nodded.

"So I put together a potion, one that I've never used before. It made me young again…physically I was back to around the equivalent of someone around thirty. I then went at Maleficent again, and that time I won," Fairy Godmother said, a small smile on her face. "What I didn't know at that moment was that during the fight, Maleficent was already pregnant with you Mal."

"Did he know?" Mal asked.

Fairy Godmother shook her head. "I suspected he was the father, but I was never able to prove it."

"So how did you two end up together?" Jane asked her mother.

"Well, when me and Maleficent were battling, our final assaults on each other caused such a release of magic that the force of it hit Dagon, freeing him of a spell that he'd been under that made him evil. Since a case could be made that all his crimes were made unwittingly, he was allowed to stay in Auradon."

"Provided he perform some services for the kingdom," Belle added. "Namely, helping catch all the other escaped villains. We figured, he released them, he should put them back. It also helped that all of them were just as afraid of him as they were of Maleficent."

"I was partnered with him, to keep an eye on him," Fairy Godmother said. "One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were intimate. Soon after that, I found out _I_ was pregnant."

"So what changed?" Evie asked.

"During a meeting here in the city with the representatives from the other kingdoms, Dagon murdered Merlin's oldest son, Michael. Apparently even with the spell broken, you can't just erase over a hundred years of evil behavior. He claimed he didn't do, but there was footage of him entering and exiting Michael's room the night of the murder. And he was the only one who went in or out. So he was sent back to the Isle. When we were transferring him back to Maleficent, she showed up with you Mal. She was somewhat happy to see him at first, until she saw me. She demanded that we turn him back into a raven," Fairy Godmother revealed.

"And back into a statue," Mal said, remembering that he had broken free before they came to Auradon.

"To cover up the fact that we let a murder into the kingdom, all records of him were locked away. No mention of him was to be made. And his memory was left to just fade away," Belle said.

"But now he's back, and hell bent on revenge?" Mal posited.

"Which is why we didn't want to tell you two," Fairy Godmother told Mal and Jane. "He's going to come for all us royals and myself. But we figured if we kept you in the dark, you two might be safe."

"Instead," Mal spoke up, "we just found out that the only people we can trust right now are our friends and each other because our parents, and the people we starting to see as parents can't be trusted."

"Mal, that's a little harsh," Belle told her.

"But not wrong," Jane said.

Fairy Godmother looked at her daughter, tears filling her eyes at the sound of that. She knew Jane would be angry. But to hear her say that she didn't trust her own mother…it broke her heart. "Jane," she said softly.

"Thank you for telling us the truth finally, but I think you should go for now," Jane told Belle and Fairy Godmother.

"Girls," Belle implored.

"You heard her," Mal said, coming to her sister's aid. "Leave."

Belle and Fairy Godmother looked at each other. Both were trying not to cry, Fairy Godmother failing. Finally, the two women got up from their chairs, and without another word, sadly left the room.

 **Chapter 33 – A Man Blessed with Many Friends**

Dagon was sitting on his bunk, his back against the wall. He was still feeling the anger from Joshua's earlier visit. He would've been content to wait to see what was going to be done to him by the Council so he could start thinking about how to get out of this place. But after hearing what Joshua had planned, he knew he needed to get out sooner.

Thanks to them feeding him three squares over the course of the day he'd been here, his full strength was back, so whatever physical requirements a plan might call for wouldn't be a problem. His powers would be another matter. The shackles he was wearing would prevent their use. But he knew that if he was to be moved, the keys to them would be on one of the guards or, as a slight bonus, on Adam if he chose to supervise. A blitz attack might work depending on the number of guards. But the wild card would be the Fairy Godmother. She would want to be there to ensure he doesn't cause the trouble he was currently trying to devise.

As he was contemplating, the area in front of his cell began to become disturbed. A swirling blue smoke, lighter than Jane's smoke in, but darker than the color of blue she chose to wear, began to appear. First the girls, Fairy Godmother, and Belle, then Joshua, and now this person. I'm quite popular today, Dagon thought. Once the smoke stopped billowing and dissipated, a lone figure stood before his cell. The figure was dressed in a dark blue hooded robe that obscured their face.

"And just whom am I speaking with now?" Dagon asked, his tone somewhere between annoyance and defiance.

"A friend," came a voice. It was muddled from the hood so he couldn't tell if it was a man or woman.

"A friend would let me see their face."

"Cameras," the figure replied, waving their hand around in a circular motion.

Dagon got up and approached the cell bars. "Something tells me that if you're knowledgeable enough to get in this place, you're knowledgeable enough to make sure the cameras are temporarily out of service," he pointed out.

The figure stepped closer to the cell and pulled back the hood just enough to cast some light on their face. Dagon smiled, his guard coming down. The figure then placed the hood back in its original placement.

"You've been practicing," he complimented.

"King Ben has called a meeting of –"

"The Council of Royals," Dagon finished. "With the topic of discussion being me. More specifically…what to do with me." The figure cocked its head in question. "Joshua Merlin told me. The good sorcerer paid me a visit earlier."

"His Majesty has called on Joshua to give a recommendation," the figure said, not knowing that Dagon already knew this as well.

"He's going to call for a vote to have me executed."

"Auradon doesn't execute prisoners. That's why the Isle was created," the figure said, shock evident in their voice.

"It's a little known law, but it's there. And he'll point it out, and then call for a vote for it. Luckily, it had to be unanimous."

"He'll never get it," the figure promised.

"Once the plans are finalized…"

"I'll return to let you know what's been decided. And depending on what's been decided, I'll also have arrangements for your escape made."

"Thank you. I know what kind of risk you're taking by doing that. And showing up here. You've always been a good a friend," Dagon said.

"You have more than you think," the figure said with a bowing of its head. Without moving from its spot, the figure took a vial out from its robes and poured out a liquid into the ground. The same dark blue smoke began billowing up from the ground, engulfing the figure before it dissipated, and Dagon was left standing alone in his cell once more.


	14. Chapter 14

**Part 34 – Meeting of the Minds**

Practically every royal house of Auradon had assembled inside the great hall inside Beast Castle. The few not in attendance were only absent due to the distance needed to travel in a day. There was a steady hum as they spoke amongst themselves, stories of Dagon's past exploits the topic of the early afternoon. The table that everyone was gathered at was a giant circle, larger than the famous Round Table at Camelot, but not as grand.

Seated behind the chair that would be reserved for Ben upon his arrival were two more chairs, one for his advisor and the other, eventually, for his Queen, when he married. Currently, the seat for the Queen was occupied by his mother as she still fulfilled certain duties even with her relinquishing full authority. The advisor's seat was used by his father, but currently occupied by Fairy Godmother in order to talk to Belle until he arrived.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Chad's father, King Charming, asked in growing impatience.

"Until Ben and Adam arrive," Belle answered. "Which should be only a few more minutes."

"Fairy Godmother?" Snow White spoke up. Fairy Godmother looked up toward the royal. "How are Jane and Mal doing?"

"They're…they're handling this as best they can," she answered sadly.

"Do they need anything?" Snow inquired further.

"To have the past several days not have happened," Fairy Godmother told her.

Before Snow could respond, Ben and his father walked in. Everyone gathered stood while he made his way to his seat. Fairy Godmother relinquished Adam's chair back to him and took her proper seat at the council table. Unknown to those outside of the Council, Fairy Godmother was actually the representative from Neverland since it was the home to all fairies. They also had no formal ruler, and so, back when the Council was being put together, Adam decreed that as The Fairy Godmother, her title afforded enough authority over the island to serve on it.

Once Ben made it to his seat he waved for everyone to sit down.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, everyone," he started. "Obviously this isn't the best of circumstances for us to be meeting under, but –"

"How did this happen?" came King Richard of Camelot's voice. There was a murmuring of voices all requesting the same information.

"I think at the moment, we should focus on how to handle Dagon now that he's custody," Ben replied.

"Well I think it's important to know how he got back here and in human form no less," Richard pushed. "For all we know, the person or persons who turned him human might try again."

"Once he's back on the Isle –," Ben began, only to be cut off.

"Is there something we haven't been told, Your Majesty?" Ariel asked.

Ben remained silent for a moment. He was trying to find some way to move things along without mentioning what happened. Unfortunately, as usually happens in moments of crisis, people's minds begin filling in the blanks when they don't receive the answers they want.

"It was Mal wasn't it?" the Emperor of Northern Wei accused. "She turned her father back didn't she?"

The rest of the Council looked over at Ben. Some had the same accusing stare that the Emperor had. Others looked neutral, waiting for Ben to answer.

"Mal had nothing to with turning Dagon back into a man, or even him being here," Ben defended.

"You're sure about this?" Cinderella asked. "Completely sure? After all, he is her father."

"One hundred percent. She didn't even know he was in Auradon until the day he was turned human. And she didn't learn that he was her father until yesterday along with Jane," he explained.

"Then the questions still beg: how did he get here? And who turned him back?" Richard posed again.

Adam stood up.

"As best as we can hypothesize, Dagon escaped the Isle during the coronation, using the same hole that Maleficent did to get here."

"Thank you again, Jane," Charming muttered under his breath. Fairy Godmother forced herself to remain quiet and not lash out. Cinderella gave her husband nudge to rebuke him.

"Do you have a hypothesis about who returned him to human form?" Richard asked. Ben and Fairy Godmother glanced at each other. "You do, don't you?"

"Then we should all be told," came Florian's voice.

Ben watched Fairy Godmother shake her head and mouth the word "please" to him in a silent plea.

"Your Majesty?" Arthur beseeched.

Ben let out a deep breath that he didn't even realize he was holding. He closed his eyes and wished he didn't have to do what he was about to. "It was…it was Jane."

The murmured hum started again. Fairy Godmother could see the royals talking amongst each other. They were consulting each other as couples, and with their neighbors. She spotted the occasional glance in her direction and became nervous about what was behind those accusing eyes. What must they be thinking of Jane, she thought.

"We believe that Dagon was manipulating her," Adam said in defense of the young girl.

"As a bird?" Mulan asked incredulously from her seat behind the Emperor. "I don't think even _he's_ that good."

"So you'd rather believe that a fourteen year old girl was capable of a feat of magic far beyond her known capabilities than believe that she could be manipulated by one of the worst villains we've ever known?" Snow White posed to her.

"Not just one of the worst," Mulan said. "Her father. His abilities combined with those from her mother, and well…we don't know just what is and is not within her capabilities."

"Jane did not do this intentionally," Fairy Godmother almost yelled. "She…she let herself get sucked in over her head. She didn't know who she was turning. If anything, this is our fault."

"Our fault?" Richard asked, looking like he'd been insulted.

"If we hadn't been so adamant about erasing Dagon from memory, she might have been prepared for this. When she saw him flying around her, she might have had the proper caution. She would have come to me and we'd have caught him then."

"Be that as it may, that doesn't negate the fact that this is the second incident involving Jane and the use, or rather, misuse of magic," King Arthur brought up.

"The first was accidental," Adam countered his argument. "As you all well know."

There was silence for once, but it was clear to Adam, Belle, and Ben, as well as Fairy Godmother, that there was some unspoken doubt being thought now. Oh my God, Fairy Godmother thought, Adam was right. They really are assuming she did it on purpose. All in attendance suddenly heard a loud banging sound. Looking for the source they saw that Ben had used the gavel that sat in front of him, something he rarely did, and disliked doing even more.

"We're getting off topic," he said firmly. "I understand that the question of how he got here _is_ important, but it's not the most pressing matter. Right now Dagon is in custody and sitting in a cell beneath this palace. What needs to be discussed is what is going to be done with him," he continued, his tone and demeanor showing the assembled royalty that he was as much his father's son as he was his mother's.

"I think that's quite clear," Snow said. "We return him to The Isle of the Lost. After all, that's what it was built for."

"I think current situation has proven that the Isle isn't sufficient to the task of holding him," Aladdin pointed out.

"Well unfortunately, Auradon doesn't have another option," Snow countered him.

There were several nods of agreement. A few of them looked defeated at the thought of just sending him back. But King Arthur showed no expression of resignation. Instead, he was leaned back, consulting with Joshua who was speaking into his ear. "I've been reminded that Auradon does in fact have another option. If you all would allow my advisor to speak," he said.

Joshua got up and all attention turned toward him. He cleared his throat and began looking around the room.

"Your gathered Majesty's, it's no secret that l have a personal connection to this matter. I've spent much time wondering if his first punishment was enough. Obviously, it wasn't. We cannot risk him getting loose again. Therefore I've searched through all of Auradon law and found that – in extreme situations – a villain can be sentenced to…death."

"Death? Death!" Cinderella stated ghastly. "No villain or prisoner has ever been sentenced to death in Auradon since its founding. After twenty years, do we really want to start now?" she asked forcefully.

"What good is an option if we don't at least consider it?" Joshua replied. "Especially with someone like Dagon – someone who has proven that our normal punishments are not enough in his case."

"But is this a precedent we want to set? You escape and instead of just being returned to the Isle, we'll kill you that time around. How much more dangerous will they become if know they that's what's awaiting them? What will they do if they conclude, 'hey, I'm dead anyway?'" Aladdin reasoned.

"Your Majesty, didn't you just say that we needed an alternative punishment than the Isle?" Joshua asked him directly.

"Punishment? Yes. I never said execution," Aladdin answered back.

"Then how about we vote on it," Joshua suggested. "The law states that a decision to execute must be made by this Council and that it must be unanimous. If Your Highness would please collect our votes," he said to Ben as he returned to his seat

"If we must," Ben agreed reluctantly. "Considering the nature of Dagon's crimes, we'll start with Camelot. King Arthur?"

Arthur looked back toward Joshua and consulted him for a few seconds. He then turned and spoke. "I vote in favor of execution."

There were stares and hushed whispers between the other royals.

"That's one," Ben tallied. "Next, I feel we should here from the representative of Neverland," he said, turning toward Fairy Godmother. The room fell silent. It was no secret what had transpired between Fairy Godmother and Dagon all those years ago. It was even more known what had happened just yesterday when they faced each other at the museum. The general thought was that like Joshua Merlin, she would be in favor of execution.

So it came as a surprise when she didn't speak right away. Instead they watched as she pulled out her phone and, from their point of view, as she looked at the screen a maudlin look come over her face. What they couldn't see was the photograph she had pulled up. A picture that she'd had saved to phone that was taken years ago, during a happier time. She swiped at the screen and looked at the next photo – one of Jane taken a few months back. Her daughter's hair hadn't been dyed yet, and was still the same dark brown as her own. But one look at those bright blue eyes, those cheeks, her lips, and it was clear that she looked every bit like her father.

"Fairy Godmother?" Ben pressed.

"I vote…I…," she hesitated. She glanced once more at Jane's picture and whispered "forgive me" to herself. "I vote…to have him placed back on the Isle."

There were a few shocked gasps, but mostly, there was stunned silence.

"The Isle? You're voting for the Isle?" Joshua asked almost indignantly. " _You_? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you try to kill him yourself yesterday?"

"That was a fight. Even so, it was wrong of me to do that," she admitted. "I should have given him the chance to come peacefully first."

"Peacefully? The man was basically Auradon's hired muscle. All he knows how to do is hurt, and maim, and kill. And instead of paying that back in kind, you want to send him back to the Isle to live out the rest of his days?" Joshua argued.

"I'm sorry, but now that I've had time to process it, and despite what he did to me – and to you – I just…I just can't bring myself to condemn him to death. For God's sake, he's the father of my child."

"He's a monster, if the definition ever applied to anyone," Joshua almost shouted at her. He then turned toward Ben. "Your Majesty, I ask that you make her cast another vote," he barked.

"Why? Because she didn't vote the way you wanted?" Snow questioned. "This Council doesn't work that way. And I've got news for you, if you're going to force a re-vote of everyone who votes to send him to the Isle, then you better be willing to challenge me at the very least, because while I can't speak for anyone else here, I'll be voting for the Isle as well."

"So will I," her husband, Florian, said.

"As will we," chimed in King Phillip, speaking for both himself and Aurora.

"Considering we have three confirmed votes for the Isle, continuing the vote seems a moot point," Ben said.

"No," Joshua shouted, standing up and slamming his fist onto the council table. "Your Majesty, I demand that you supersede this Council's authority with own and order Dagon's execution."

"No," Ben told him firmly. "Like Queen Snow stated, you will not challenge the authority of this Council simply because you are not getting the outcome you wanted."

"This is outrageous," Joshua shouted at Ben.

"King Arthur, would please calm your advisor down?" Ben asked.

"I believe he's earned the right to be upset. After all, it was his brother that was killed all those years ago.

"Even so, that issue is not being discussed today. Today we are deciding how to handle his escape, and we have. Now, I'll be bringing in the royal guards to help us discuss his transport back to the Isle. So unless he has input on _that_ , I suggest Mr. Merlin please sit back down," Ben instructed.

Realizing that he had no further recourse, Joshua straightened up, bowed his head, and returned to his seat.

* * *

There's not a lot to do when you're stuck in a cell – especially one built specifically for you. With nothing to pass the time Dagon was stuck remembering past memories. He almost laughed when he considered that he was remembering things that happened fifteen years ago as if it had only been a couple of weeks. Then again, for him it was just a couple of weeks. When you're turned into a statue, it's like being put to sleep; time just seems to stop and the next thing you know you're waking up and the whole worlds changed.

Suddenly the patchwork nation you helped protect is a thriving kingdom. The infant prince is now the king. And your daughters have grown into teenagers – and you missed every second of them growing up.

The sound of wind picking up caught his attention. He turned and saw the same billowing smoke from the day before; at least he assumed it was the day before. With the dungeons being located under the castle, it was easy to lose track of time. When the smoke cleared, the hooded figure stood before him again.

"What time is it?" he grumbled.

"I have more pressing matters," the figure said.

"Early evening? Late afternoon? I'm going to keep asking, might as well just tell me that first."

"One-thirty in the morning," the figure answered after a few seconds silence. "I thought it best to wait for the middle of the night." Dagon gestured with his head in agreement. "Joshua Merlin did not get the vote for execution like he wanted – angered him to no end."

Dagon let out a scoff. "I can imagine. So I'm going back to the Isle?"

The hooded figure bowed its head. "In three days. I've already begun formulating a plan to get you out."

"During transport would be best. They'll have less security," Dagon said. The figure cocked its head to the side. "They'll probably have security measures placed in the truck moving me to keep me from using physical force or my magic. They won't want to draw attention, so the guard count will be low. During transport is when you hit it."

"Yes, sir. I'll visit before you move to let you know the final details."

The figure back away from the bars and once again used a potion to dissipate from the cell.

 **Part 35 – The Bad Girls Club**

"You don't think you might've been a little hard on your Mom there, Janey?" Harriet asked as she and Jane were in the same family room as earlier. This time however, Ben had the staff remove the couches and chairs and some sleeping bags brought in. The boys had decided to let the girls be on their own, so it was currently just Harriet, Jane, Mal, Evie, Audrey, Freddie, and Lonnie.

"She lied to me," Jane said coldly.

"And I get that, I really do…but she's still your Mom."

"Are you taking her side?" Jane asked, afraid that even her friend was somehow in her mother's camp.

"No, definitely not," Harriet answered with a shake of her head. "She shouldn't have lied to you. But she did think she was protecting you. That should count for something."

"I have a sister she never told me about," Jane fired back with, her head turning in Mal's direction.

"Not to mention that they were all content to let Jane and me walk around not knowing who we were to each other," Mal added.

"I never said what she – or rather – they did was wrong," Harriet defended herself. "I'm just saying before you go and make Fairy Godmother – or whomever it is you call Mom nowadays Mally – cry, just keep in mind that that they didn't _want_ to hurt you, even if that's what happened."

"And you would know that how, Harriet?" Mal asked. "You're not exactly an expert on how mothers treat their daughters." Almost immediately Mal regretted what she'd just said. She saw Harriet's eyes water just a little bit before the blonde girl blinked them away. "Harriet, I'm… I'm sor –"

Harriet stopped Mal with a raised finger. "You're right Mal, I don't know how mothers treat their daughters. After all, I didn't get to keep mine growing up," she revealed. "So you'll excuse me if I'd like to believe that, even if it hurts sometimes, that a mom just wants to protect her daughter," she added, holding back tears.

The room became quiet. The AK girls were feeling sympathy for the newest arrival from the Isle. Each one of them had their mothers, so it broke their hearts to hear that Harriet had lost hers. For Mal and Evie, the revelation had brought out a side of Harriet they had never seen. They were used to tough and mean girl who ran her gang of pirates with an iron fist. Freddie just looked at Harriet indifferently, trying to not feel the same things she was since she was in almost the same situation as far as mothers were concerned.

"Your Mom's…?" Jane started to ask, not being able to finish the question. Harriet nodded. Jane crawled over to Harriet's sleeping bag and gave her a hug. She heard Harriet whimper, but when she pulled back, Harriet had already forced her tears to stop.

"It's so weird seeing that," came Audrey's voice.

"What now?" Harriet nearly barked at her.

"That…this – you two," Audrey answered.

"Yeah, seeing you two being so chummy is…a little wired," Freddie concurred. "And _I'm_ used to seeing it."

"How'd it happen?" Lonnie questioned.

Jane and Harriet looked at each other and just shrugged. Harriet then motioned for Jane to start explaining. Jane recounted the day they met and everything after that. This time, since everyone in the room was privileged to know Freddie's exact involvement, Jane didn't have to leave details out.

"So you've been hanging out with the Harriet and Freddie this whole time?" Mal asked.

Jane nodded. She saw Lonnie lean over and whisper in Audrey's ear. Audrey shrugged and mouthed "I don't know".

"What?" Jane asked slightly confused.

"Well…," Lonnie started, her face telling that she didn't know if she should say what she was thinking.

"Lonnie was wondering, and I repeat – just wondering," Audrey said, looking at Harriet and feeling a little nervous since she was starting to feel a little afraid of her. "If Jane's dad is a villain, doesn't that technically make her a VK, too?"

Jane immediately looked at Harriet. Then at Mal. She didn't know how to answer, or how she should feel at the realization. Part of her wanted to shake her head and say no, that she was an AK though and through. But lately, after having gotten to know the VKs, and become at ease being around them – something she assumed was the reason she was so comfortable around Harriet – she couldn't deny that maybe that new found ease was because of something already inside her.

"Half at best," Mal answered looking at Evie. "But I think we can overlook the AK half?"

Evie nodded her head, a wicked little smirk on her pretty face. "Sounds about right," she said.

"Works for me," Freddie added with a chuckle.

"I knew there was something about you that made you interesting, Janey," Harriet said with a playful nudge to her newest best friend.

"I guess what we're trying to say Jane…," Mal spoke up, her own playfully evil grin on her face, "…is welcome to the club…Sis."

Soon, all the girls, Audrey and Lonnie included, broke out laughing.


	15. Chapter 15

**Part 36 – Sympathy for the Devil**

General Matthews was standing before a gathered few as he went over the details of the way Dagon was to be transported back to the Isle. The vast majority of royals were out checking on their children leaving his presentation of the plan to Ben, Adam and Belle, Snow White, King Charming, King Richard, and Aladdin and Jasmine.

"So my staff and I determined that the best course of action was to keep the time travelling to a minimum to prevent Dagon from having time to escape. Our route will take us just outside the main center of Auradon City."

"And through populated areas?" King Richard asked as he looked at the routed that had been laid out on the map that was being projected onto the wall.

"Yes, Your Highness," General Matthews answered him.

"Are there no other routes with little, or preferably, no citizens to be put in danger?" Snow White asked. "From what I'm seeing here, if you went a little further west and _then_ south, we could avoid populated areas almost entirely," she posited.

"We considered that, ma'am, but when we ran the numbers, it changed the time of transport from just over an hour that the current route takes, to almost two and a half. And while I do understand that minimizing the threat to the people is great…"

"We felt that the faster we were able to get Dagon out of Auradon did a better job of minimizing that threat even more," Adam interjected.

" _We_?" Charming inquired.

"I'll be in the truck with Dagon to ensure that he doesn't try anything," Adam informed the room.

Belle immediately became shocked. This was the first she had heard of this and it obviously displeased her. "Are you sure that's safe? What if he does attempt a break out?" she asked her husband.

"General," Adam deferred.

"Fairy Godmother will be placing spells and enchantments on both the outside and inside of the truck to prevent escape. Also, Dagon will remain in his magic inhibiting shackles to prevent him from using magic, and she's going to use binding spells on the inside of the truck that will prevent actual physical violence from even being attempted."

"It seems that all contingencies are being taken," Aladdin said. "Where will all this be monitored from, however?" he wondered.

"From Auradon Prep, Sultan," the General answered him. "Since Dagon is currently here under Beast Castle, we felt it was best to keep the royalty at a distance. Fairy Godmother will erect a barrier around the school so that you all may watch the transport safely," he explained. As the gathered members of the Royal Council looked to each other and nodded their approval, General Matthews cleared his throat. They looked back toward him, noticing the expression on his face had changed, almost as if he didn't want to say what was coming next.

"Yes, General," Adam prodded.

"Since he knows he's going to be moved back to the Isle, Dagon has offered his word to not try and break himself out if we…if we grant him one request."

"And that request would be?" Adam asked, his voice much more firm as he felt trouble coming.

* * *

"Absolutely not," Fairy Godmother said emphatically as she, Belle, Adam, Ben, Mal and Jane all met in one of the palace's studies.

"Fairy Godmother, please," Belle tried to calm her.

"No," Fairy Godmother said to the unspoken plea. "That is _not_ going to happen," she stated.

"It will go a long way to easing the situation," Adam replied.

"For whom?" Fairy Godmother demanded. "Huh? For you all? Or for him?"

"Yes…to both," Adam answered her. Fairy Godmother huffed and shook her head. "Don't give me that, you know just as well as I do how dangerous Dagon is. There's no telling how many ways he could conceive to break himself out of custody before we get him back to the Isle. If acquiescing to one request gets him to give his word to not break himself out, then I think we should take it."

Fairy Godmother scoffed at Adam's reasoning. "His word? His word is meaningless to me."

"Have you ever known him to not keep it though?" Belle countered.

Everyone watched a Fairy Godmother's eyes flashed a light purple. She took a deep breath and closed them. When she reopened them, they were back to her normal brown.

"He _promised_ me that he would never dip back into being Diablo again. Then he murder Michael Merlin. He _promised_ me that he would never lie to me. And then he looked me in eyes and claimed to be innocent. He _promised_ me that he would never break my heart. And he then he shattered it. He _promised_ me that…he promised that he would always be there for her," Fairy Godmother said pointing at Jane, her voice breaking and her eyes becoming watery. "And then he left her – both those girls actually," she said, referencing Mal. "He left them without a father. So yes, I have known him to not keep his word."

"What would you have us do then?" Adam asked her. "Tell me. If we don't give him this, what can we do to ensure absolute certainty that he won't decide to free himself?"

"Does he scare you that much Adam? That you'd let him blackmail this kingdom this way?"

"It's not about fear, it's about protecting this kingdom. And maybe…I don't know…maybe a small part of me that has some sympathy for him and his request," Adam explained while looking at his son and then at Dagon's daughters. "One father to another."

"He is no father," Fairy Godmother fired back angrily. "And the decision to let them meet with him rests with me…and I say no."

"That's not entirely true," Ben spoke up. "While I have the authority to grant Dagon's request, the decision to let Mal and Jane rests with their parents. You're Jane's mother, but not Mal's. My parents are her guardians."

"And we…we would be open you letting her meet with him," Belle told Fairy Godmother.

As they sat back listening, Jane tapped Mal's knee with her own. Mal turned toward Jane. "Don't we get a say?" Jane asked her older sister.

Mal turned back toward the arguing adults and then stood up. "Hey," she shouted. Everyone stopped and looked the purple haired girl. "Doesn't anyone want to, I don't know…ask us?" she demanded. Everyone turned toward Mal and Jane. "We deserve a say in this too."

"No, you really don't," Fairy Godmother tried to correct her.

"Yes, they do," Belle chimed in. "They have every right to decide whether they want to meet with their father. Adam, Ben, girls, can you give me and Fairy Godmother the room for a little bit?" She looked around the room at the fact that no one seemed to be moving. "Please?" she added, her voice letting everyone know she wasn't _really_ asking.

Ben, Adam, and Mal and Jane began to reluctantly leave the room.

"Girls, go with your friends," Belle instructed them. Mal and Jane shared a look and nodded.

Once the two of them were alone Belle led Fairy Godmother over to one of the couches.

"Fairy Godmother, I understand that Dagon is a…"

"Bastard?" Fairy Godmother finished for her.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a sore subject for you. I get it. You're angry –"

"I am beyond angry," she seethed. "He…I…," she stammered, the words not coming to her. Fairy Godmother stopped and tried to compose herself. She tried to gather her thoughts, thinking of all the things that had happened between her and Dagon. And then all of the things that had happened _because_ of him. She felt conflicting feelings begin to swarm her. Affection. Disdain. Longing. Anger. Love

"Do you know what it's like to both love and hate someone?" she asked Belle after her moment of reflection. She looked at her friend and shook her head. "What am I saying? Of course you don't. The love your life didn't turn out to be the monster everyone warned you about."

Belle chuckled softly.

"I think I have an idea about loving a monster," Belle said gently.

"No, you don't," Fairy Godmother disagreed. "Adam might have given in to his animal instincts for a little while there, but overall, the good man inside him was still there. Dagon gave in to his darkness. And left my life in shambles for years because of it."

"I'm not going to begin to say I know what it's like to have my heart broken the way you did. Or that I know what the pain was like for you afterwards. I can't – because I don't. But I do know, by looking at their faces, that right now, Jane and Mal are going through their own bit of pain over this situation. Some of we caused…some of it Dagon did. But as their mothers we also have an obligation to help them through it."

"Mothers?" Fairy Godmother said with a raised eyebrow and a surprised smile.

"Yes, I've begun imprinting on Mal, it's no real secret," Belle confessed. "And while I'm not thrilled with the idea of Dagon wanting to meet with them, if we don't, then any unresolved issues regarding their father, from this point on, will be on us, not him. Besides, we only got to this point because we withheld the truth from them."

"He shouldn't get to demand to see them, not after everything he's done," Fairy Godmother said.

"Then leave the decision to the girls. If they want to see him, we'll let them. We'll both be there anyway. Dagon even said they can bring anyone they want in order to feel safe."

Fairy Godmother remained silent. Everything inside her was screaming for her to say no. To remain adamant that Mal and Jane not see their father. But she knew that Belle was right. They were already angry over the fact that they'd been kept in the dark over the fact they were not told they were sisters. If they weren't at least given the opportunity to talk to Dagon after he'd asked, they might hold that against them as well.

"Let's go talk to the girls," she finally relented, bringing a pleased nod from Belle.

* * *

Belle and Fairy Godmother were once again sitting before Mal and Jane. Like last time, their friends were in the room, the only difference was that this time Chad had joined them. It was quite the shock to Mal, Carlos and Jay, and Audrey and Lonnie when they saw the prince wearing nose dressing to protect his broken nose. What was even more shocking – albeit not to Jane, Harriet, and Freddie – was when Chad told them that he didn't actually know how he broke his nose. As the teens sat around the room, Harriet and Evie stuck close to Jane and Mal once again, though Harriet made sure to keep as much distance as possible from Chad even while casting the occasional angry glace in his direction.

"So what decision did you make for us?" Mal asked, her voice more sarcastic than angry.

Belle and Fairy Godmother looked at each other before turning back to the girls.

"We decided that when it comes to the subject of your father, that we've made enough decisions for you," Belle said. "In this situation, we think it would be best to let the two of you decide if you want to say yes to his request to see you."

Jane and Mal looked at each other. Belle and Fairy Godmother tried to read their expressions, but the girls' remained stoic, almost as if…

"You two decided what you want to do already, didn't you?" Fairy Godmother asked. Jane nodded sheepishly. "Well?"

"We…um…we decided," Jane began, the steeliness of seconds before wavering.

"We'll meet with him," Mal finished for her when she realized that Jane was becoming intimidated from the possibility of her mother's reaction.

"Are you sure?" Belle asked gently. Mal and Jane nodded.

"If it'll help keep him from doing something…well, evil, we'll do it," Mal answered.

"Are you mad?" Jane asked her mother timidly.

Fairy Godmother took a deep breath before answering her daughter. She looked across at her, and then at Mal. Jane's sister, she thought, that is Jane's sister. My daughter, has a sister. As she let those words echo in her mind, she realized that even when Mal came over from the Isle, she kept that knowledge from Jane from a sense of…misplaced fear. Or maybe it was guilt. But as she saw Mal and Jane sitting together, and remembering the way that Mal seem to come to Jane's aid, both physical and emotional, when she needed it these past few days, almost as if it was some form of instinct or connection from their blood or their magic, she didn't know. And the way Jane seemed to easily accept the older girl, and gravitate to her for protection and for confidence, not just these past few days, but ever since Mal had arrived. It broke Fairy Godmother's heart as she imagined what kind of relationship these two might have had if they'd grown up together like they should have.

"Mom?" Jane prodded as her mother just stared at her.

"I'm not thrilled that you – both of you – want to meet with him, but, like Belle said, we've made enough decisions for you regarding him."

"Besides, Dagon also said you didn't have to meet with him alone," Belle informed them. "You can bring friends if that'll make you feel safer, and both Fairy Godmother and I will be there."

The girls nodded.

"Is there anything else you girls need before we have this meet set up?" Fairy Godmother asked, looking at both of them, especially Jane, with a mixture of guilt and hope.

Jane and Mal looked at each other. They just stared for a second or two before nodding to each other and raising their eyes at one another. It was clear that whatever they were communicating to each other, it was not spur of the moment. Finally, Mal looked at the two women before them.

"We're – and I mean both me and Jane – not happy that you lied to us. That you kept this massive set of secrets from us. We get that telling us was going to be hard –"

"And a little bit painful," Jane added.

Belle and Fairy Godmother looked at each other guiltily.

"But…," Mal began speaking again, "we understand now why you did it. You were only trying to protect us, because that's what mother's do," she finished. Belle felt her eyes water at what Mal had just said. She didn't know if Mal was making the same assertion of the relationship between the two of them that she'd made to Fairy Godmother earlier, or if she was just lumping both she and Fairy Godmother together to save time. But either way, hearing Mal possibly say that she looked to her as a mother figure was heartwarming all the same.

"What Mal – _we_ – are trying to say is that, we're sorry for telling you that we couldn't trust you. It was…we were just angry," Jane further explained.

"Really angry," Mal said. "I mean, growing up, and having Mom tell me that my father was human and weak, but making it sound like he was alive. Do you know what it was like to walk around that island, passing all these different guys, and wondering, is he my father? Or him? Or that guy?" Mal asked of Belle and Fairy Godmother, tearing up as she remembered what is was like to constantly wonder if she'd passed her father a hundred times and never knew it. Or worse, he knew her, and was too scared or just didn't care enough to reveal himself.

"I used to lay awake at night, wondering what he was like since you never talked about him," Jane said to her mother. "Was he some big hero? Or was he just some normal guy that managed to steal your heart? I used to pray, thinking he could hear me," Jane revealed, a stray tear falling down her cheek. Most of the girls in the room, even the sarcastic Freddie and hardened Harriet, were crying along with Audrey and Evie and Lonnie. Jay, Carlos, and Chad just remained quiet, but doing a better job of fighting back similar emotions.

"We are so, so sorry girls," Fairy Godmother spoke, clearly crying at this point. Even Belle managed to forgo her usual stoic demeanor, honed from years of royal decorum, and let her tears flow. "And thank you for forgiving us."

"Actually, you have her to thank for that," Jane said, pointing at Harriet. "She was the one who told us that we were overreacting."

"Really?" Belle asked the pirate, a gentle, appreciative smile on her face. Harriet nodded, trying to not too smile too big.

"And Adam _wants_ to send her back to the Isle?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"I'm working on that," Belle told her.

 **Part 37 – Family Dysfunction**

It was the day before Dagon was to be returned to the Isle, and Mal and Jane's nerves we're high. They had all their friends with them, as well as Belle and Fairy Godmother. Adam had even volunteered to be in the dungeon with them. They were walking down the corridors that led down to where Dagon was being held. To the teens, it felt like they were being led down into the depths of hell, a feeling lost on none of them considering who they were going to see.

"So just why are _you_ here?" Harriet asked Chad, with just a slight bit of venom in her tone, as they finally made it down the stairs and into the hallway.

"Seriously, Harriet?" Freddie asked her friend. Considering she knew where Harriet's animosity was coming from, Freddie was hoping that Harriet didn't cause a scene by snapping at Chad.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Chad asked in mild shock.

"Well, from the stories I've heard…and things I've seen…Chad Charming only looks out for Chad Charming," Harriet told him.

"Heard?" Chad asked in disbelief. Then he moved his head in a more or less motion. "I'll give you those, but seen? I don't even know you," he snapped at her. "And besides, Jane is like a little sister, I'm certainly not going to let her go face to face with a guy who calls himself the devil unless I'm there to protect her."

Jane felt a small little smirk curl her lips as she heard Chad. He may be a little rough around the edges, but during moments like this, Chad is the best big brother ever, Jane thought. Even Harriet found herself surprised by the usually cocky prince's response. She expected him to be the same wretch she'd heard, and the same one she'd broken the nose of. But listening to him say how he was there for Jane, try as she might, she didn't doubt his sincerity.

"So do you have any other misconceptions about me?" Chad asked.

Harriet shook her head. "Unless you surprise me some more, I think my notions about you are correct: pompous ass, self-entitled blockhead, and…a two-faced, cheating jerk."

"Harriet," Fairy Godmother admonished her daughter's friend.

"Sorry, Ms. Jane's Mom," Harriet said with a smile, and a rather unapologetic tone. The assembled teens just chuckled at the name that Harriet addressed Fairy Godmother with.

Once the group hit the hallway, suddenly their steady pace seemed to slow. The adults, who had been intermixed amongst the teenagers, were now in front, a fact not lost on them. Eventually, and quicker than all of them, Jane and Mal especially, realized, they were at the door to Dagon's cell. There were a pair of guards stationed outside the doors waiting for them, placed there by Ben for Mal and Jane's extra protection. Fairy Godmother nodded to them and they unlocked the cell door, letting the group in. Adam was the first through the door, followed by Belle and Fairy Godmother, then a tentative Mal and Jane, and finally their friends.

What they saw was Dagon sitting on his bunk, staring expectantly at the door, watching them all enter. His eyes traveled over everyone that came in, studying the faces of the children of friends and royals who, when last time he was running around, barely looked old enough to have children themselves. As the group stopped several feet away from his cage, he roamed his eyes down the amassed group, bowing his head when his line of sight passed through Belle and Adam, and Audrey. But he shocked the entire group when he reached the end, and came to Evie. He looked her in the eye, unnerving the blue-haired teen for a moment, before he bowed and said, "Your Highness."

Evie looked at him confused, as did everyone else.

"Um…she's not a princess here," Audrey spoke up sheepishly, her voice soft, Dagon's presence scaring the confidence out of her.

Dagon turned his stare back toward the pink clad princess. Audrey felt her blood run cold and ducked halfway behind Freddie who was standing the closest to her. Freddie backed up herself, wondering just what Audrey expected her to do to protect her.

"I'm from the Isle, Pinky," he told Audrey. He then pointed toward Evie while keeping his eyes locked on her. "As far as I'm concerned, she's _our_ princess."

Evie didn't know how to react to what she'd just heard. Part of her wanted to smile at the fact that someone was regarding her as a princess. But she also didn't want to look like she was being swayed by a simple act of recognition.

"Stop stalling," Fairy Godmother told Dagon. "You wanted this meeting, so let's get it over with."

"Lovely to see you too," Dagon said to her. "I'd like them a little closer…please." Everyone looked hesitant to agree with this request, Fairy Godmother most of all with Belle and Adam a close second. "Do you really think I'd hurt _them_?"

After nods of agreement, Mal and Jane were allowed to move closer until they were only a couple of feet in front of him. They stood nervously, a raging mixture of emotions running through them. Dagon stared at them, his gaze going back and forth.

"I didn't get to say this last time due to the whole truthful revelations coming out, but…my God, you two are so beautiful," he said, his voice going suddenly calmer than normal, even for him.

"Um…thank you," Jane said, not sure what to really think about the compliment.

Mal looked at Jane and then turned to look at Fairy Godmother. She then turned back toward Dagon. Her face was confused. "I know that you were in love with Fairy Godmother," she started, eliciting a small nod from Dagon. "But…but what about my…," she trailed off, finding it difficult to finish the question.

"Was I in love with your mother, too?" Mal nodded. "I was under a spell. And your mother, well, she wasn't what you could call…romantic," he answered her with the best response he could come up with. "But there was an attraction…obviously."

Jane and Mal looked at each other, feeling hugely awkward. They agreed to the meeting because they wanted answers. In fact, they'd woken up in the middle of the night the night before, after everyone had fallen asleep, and talked about what they wanted to say and what they wanted to know. But as they stood before their father, they suddenly found themselves unable to ask of him any of the questions they'd come up with. Instead, they just stood there, trying to process whole situation.

"I'm sorry," Dagon said to them. They looked up at him, confused by his statement. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you two were growing up. God I wanted to be," he said in a maudlin voice.

"You didn't even know about me," Mal pointed out to him.

"But once I realized that your mother had given birth, I begged Fairy Godmother to have you brought to Auradon then so you'd have a chance at a…stable childhood. Because knowing your mother like I do, you turning out as well as you did is a miracle."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have killed someone," Fairy Godmother muttered, but was still loud enough to be heard.

Dagon turned to look at her, almost glaring actually. He then turned back to Jane and Mal. " _That_ did not happen. I don't have the cleanest hands, but the crime they say I did, the one that took me away from you two – I never did it. I am completely innocent of it."

"How dare you lie to their faces?" Fairy Godmother practically growled at him.

"How dare you tell her I was dead because you couldn't bring yourself to tell her the truth?" Dagon shouted back at her while pointing at Jane.

"Truth? The truth? What truth would that be? Huh? That her father is murderer?" Fairy Godmother argued as she walked up the cell.

"I did not kill him!" Dagon shouted, emphasizing every word. "You all never even gave me the courtesy of an investigation."

"Alright, I think we need to calm this down," Belle tried to reason.

"We had proof," Fairy Godmother countered Dagon.

"You had what someone wanted you to see."

"Mom, calm down," Jane tried to interrupt.

"You need to be glad that you're in that cell, because if you weren't I'd –"

"You don't have the stones to hurt me," Dagon snarled at her.

Everyone watched as, in a rage that only Dagon seemed to be able to bring out of her, Fairy Godmother snapped her fingers. Suddenly, visible bolts of electricity began to emanate from Dagon's cuffs, and spread out over his arms and engulfing his upper body. Dagon dropped to his knees, screaming as the pain ripped through him.

"Mom, no," Jane shouted, horrified at what she was watching. She wasn't the only one, both the VKs and the AKs found themselves unable to comprehend what they were witnessing. This was the Fairy Godmother, the smiling, cheery, headmistress of Auradon Prep. She would never in a million years ever do something like this. But she was, and for the first time, they all wondered who it was that was in front of them.

"Fairy Godmother that's enough," Adam screamed as he ran toward Mal and Jane who were standing there, too scared to move. He grabbed them and rushed them to Belle. "Get them and the others out of here," he told his wife who nodded and began rushing the small group of teens out of the dungeon.

As the group was being sped out, Adam placed himself in front of Fairy Godmother. "You need to stop this." Fairy Godmother just looked past him. Her face was stone cold, but Adam could see the pain in her eyes. She was angry. She was hurt. Above all else – she was heartbroken.

"Fairy Godmother, you need to stop this because what's going to happen to Jane if you end up on the Isle," he implored to her. Fairy Godmother turned to look at him. "If you don't stop, and he dies, that's where you'll end up because then…you'll be just like him."

Fairy Godmother felt her eyes water momentarily. She then snapped her fingers again and everything – the electricity, the pain, the screaming – for Dagon stopped. Dagon fell to floor. He then struggled to get back to his knees, using the cell for support. Fairy Godmother walked up to the cell and then knelt down so she was face to face with him.

"I hate how you make me feel. I hate what you bring out of me," she told him softly. She then reached into the cell, her powers granting her immunity from the magic barrier. She then lifted his face, cradling it in her hand intimately. "But most of all," she stated, pausing as she began to cry. "I hate that I still love you."


End file.
